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hs 


oY 


LIiBRA RY 


OF THE 


Theological Seminary, 


PRINCETON, N. J. 


Boe eL01 @M26 41.8343 

McIlvaine, Charles Pettit, 
1799-1873. 

The evidences of 


Ce St an tt tn that a 


7 Met: 4 y * gat hy te py +H ~~ - j 
me : 
THE 


IN THEIR 


‘ --s-#HX'TERNAL DIVISION, 


fale COURSE OF LECTURES. 


> 
DELIVERED IN . ¥ 


THE CITY OF NEW YORK, IN THE WINTER OF 1831-2, 


Ais: 
na 
i BY 


vA 


dl "CHARLES P. MILVAINE, D.D. 
ai Protestant Eaiene! Church in the State of Ohio, 


SECOND EDITION. 


NEW YORK: 


COLLINS & HANNAY, 
230 PEARL STREET. By 


—o 1933. 


EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY: 


‘Sint caste delicie mex, scripturm tue ; nec fallar in eis, nec fallam ex eis.—AUGUSTINE. 


7 


? ae 


N rentared by the ana pial ied to Act of Congress | in he year 1832, n- 
Y ocics of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States for the; ae A 
at of N ew York. ) ath 


Wi bi 8 NEW YORK : stil cits 
_ STEREOTYPED BY J. S. REDFIELD & co, 
216 William Street 


y 


ae 


PREFACE. 


Tus history of the following lectures may be given in few words. In the 
autumn of eighteen hundred and thirty-one, when the University of the City 
of New York had not yet organized its classes, nor appointed its instructers, 
it was represented to the Council, that a course of lectures on the Evidences 
of Christianity was exceedingly needed, and would probably be well attended 
by young men of intelligence and education. On the strength of such repre- 
sentation, the author of this volume was requested, by the Chancellor of the 
University, to undertake the work desired ; not, he is well aware, on account 
of any special qualifications for a task which many others in the city woula 
have executed much more satisfactorily ; but because, having lectured on the 
Evidences of Christianity, while connected with the Military Academy at 


West Point, he was supposed to be in a great measure prepared at this time 
for a similar effort. It was under a considerable misunderstanding of the 
_ extent to which the proposed engagement would be expected to go, that the 


author expressed a hesitating willingness to assume its responsibility. The 


next thing was the honour of an appointment, by the Council of the University, 


to the office of “ Lecturer on the Evidences of Christianity.” Alarmed at the 
prospect of so much additional work, but desirous of serving a rising and 
most hopeful institution, as well as of advocating the gospel of the Lord Jesus 
Christ; he consented to the appointment, with the expectation of finding, in 
the manuscripts of the former course, enough preparation already made to 
prevent any considerable increase to his accumulated engagements. What 
was his disappointment, on inspecting those compositions, to find himself so 
little satisfied with their plan and whole execution, that instead of attempting 
to mend their infirmities and supply their deficiencies, it seemed much better 
to lay them all aside in their wonted retirement, and begin anew both in study 
and writing! ‘Thus, in the midst of exhausting duties, as a parish minister,* 
and in a state of health by no means well established, he was unexpectedly 
committed to an amount of labour which, had it been all foreseen, he would 


not have dared to undertake. Mean while, a class of many hundreds, from 


among the most intelligent in the community, and composed, to a considerable 


* The author was at that time Rector of St, Ann’s Church) Brooklyn, N. Y, 
‘S¢ 


tamer 


4 PREFACE. 


extent, of members of the “New York Young Men’s Society for Intellectual 
and Moral Improvement,” had been formed, and was waiting the commence- 
ment of the course. A more interesting, important, or attentive assemblage 
of mind and character, no one need wish to address. ‘The burden of prepara- 
tion was delightfully compensated by the pleasure of speaking to such an 
audience. The lecturer could not but feel an engrossing impression of the 
privilege, as well as responsibility of such an opportunity of usefulness. 
He would thankfully acknowledge the kindness of divine Providence, in his 
having been permitted and persuaded to embrace it, and for a measure of 
health, in the prosecution of its duties, far beyond what he had reason to 
expect. His debt of gratitude is inexpressibly increased by the cheering 
information, that much spiritual benefit was derived from the lectures by 
some whose minds, at the outset of the course, were far from the belief of the 
blessed gospel, as a revelation from God. 

The idea of publication did not originate with the author. He began the 
work with no such view. Had it not been for the favourable opinion of the 
Council of the University, as to the probable usefulness of the step, and 
the urgent advice of distinguished individuals of that body; he would have 
shrunk from contributing another volume to a department of divinity, already 
so well supplied by authors of the highest grade of learning and intellect. 
After the recent lectures of Daniel Wilson, D. D., the present excellent bishop 
of Calcutta, not to speak of many other and earlier works in the same field, 
it will not seem surprising to the present author if some should think it quite 
presumptuous, at least unnecessary, for a writer of such inferior qualifications, 
in every sense, to offer an additional publication. But all have not read, nor 


may all be expected to read the books which have already been issued. — 


Nothing can be more conclusive; and yet, to multitudes of readers, they must 
remain as if they were not. A work of inferior claims may find readers, and 
do much good, in consequence of local circumstances drawing attention to its 
pages, where all others would be overlooked. Vessels of moderate draught 
may go up the tributary streams of public thought, and may deal advantage- 
ously with the minds,of men, where others of heavier tonnage could never 
reach. Should such be an advantage of this unpretending publication, its 
apparent presumption may be pardoned, and its author will, by no means, 
have laboured in vain. That many faults will be found in it, he cannot but 
anticipate. That any have arisen from haste, carelessness, or want of pains, 
he will not dishonour his sense of duty, however he might excuse his under- 
standing, by the plea. He can only say that he has tried to do well, and to do 
good. If, in the opinion of any qualified critic, he has succeeded, he desires 
to regard it as a matter of thankfulness to God, not of praise to himself. If 
he has failed, let the infirmities of the lecturer, not the merits of the subject, 
receive the blame. 

That many books have been consulted in the preparation of this volume, 
and that the author is greatly indebted to the more learned labours of numerous 
predecessors, he need not acknowledge. It seems ‘unnecessary to mention 


PREFACE. 5 


more particularly than is done in the margin, the various works from which 
assistance or authority has been derived. Wherever quotations occur they 
are marked, and almost always credited to their respective authors. The 
elaborate work of Lardner on the Credibility of the Gospel History, and the 
books of Josephus, being more frequently cited than any other; it may be 
well to mention that the edition of Josephus, referred to in the marginal notes, 
is that of Whiston’s translation, in one volume octavo, London, 1828; and 
the quotations from Lardner are out of the quarto edition of his works, in five 
volumes, London, 1815. 

And now, without further preface, let this humble attempt to promote the 
saving truth of Jesus Christ be committed to Him whose blessing alone can 
honour it. Should it receive but little favour from man, and yet be made, in 
the Lord’s hand, the instrument of leading some misguided soul from the 
darkness and barrenness of infidelity to the precious light and hope of the 
gospel, its name will then be written in heaven, and its unworthy author will 
have a rich reward. C. P. M. 


PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 


Tue author has been much gratified and encouraged, by the favourable 
notice which this unpretending effort to serve the cause of truth and human 
happiness, has received from sundry very respectable publications, as well 
as by the ready circulation it has found in the community. Instances of 
persons, whose minds God has enlightened, by means of these lectures, since 
their publication, have been brought to the knowledge of the writer, and are 
cegarded as his inestimable reward. The work having been adopted as a 
class-book in some collegiate institutions, and being represented, from various 
quarters, as much needed for extensive circulation among a description of 
readers, who could not be induced to obtain a copy at the cost of the edition 
already with the public, an impression of much less expense is now prepared, 
and committed to the blessing of Him, whose truth and service the author 
desires, above all things, to promote. UO) Po NM. 

March 8, 1833. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE I. 
Introductory Observations, - - - - - - = = - = += +--+. B 


LECTURE II. 
Authenticity of the New Testament,- - - - - - = = = = - - 42 


LECTURE III. 
Authenticity and Integrity of the New Testament, - - - - - - - 68 


LECTURE IV. 
Credibility of the Gospel History, - - - - - - - - - - - - 99 


LECTURE V. 
Divine Authority of Christianity, from Miracles, - - - - - - - 196. 


LECTURE VI. 
Argument from Miracles, continued, - - - - - - - - = - - 155 


LECTURE VII. 
Divine Authority of Christianity, from Prophecy, - - - - - - - 184 


LECTURE VIII. 
Argument, from Prophecy, continued, - - - - = - - - - - = Q16 


LECTURE IX. 
Divine Authority of Christianity, from its Propagation, - - - - - 251 


LECTURE X. 
Divine Authority of Christianity, from its Fruits, - - - - - - - 9284 


LECTURE XI. 
Argument, from the Fruits of Christianity, continued, - - - - - - 317 


LECTURE, x11. 
Summary and Application of the Argument, - - - - - - = = 2 357 


LECTURE XIII. : 
Inspiration and Divine Authority of the Scriptures, with Concluding 
Observation, - - - - - - - - -- = -+- = + = = = = 392 


EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 


LECTURE I. 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 


I appear before those who have come this evening to 
favour me with their attention, as sustaining, under appoint- 
ment from the University of the city of New York, the office 
of Lecturer on the Evidences of Christianity. It is but jus- 
tice to my own feelings, to assure you that I had not thought 
of entering on so much responsibility until earnestly requested 
to do so by respected. individuals belonging to the council of 
that institution, I am not without much apprehension of 
having ventured far beyond my qualifications in acceding to 
their desires. When I think of the many in this city of 
much superior furniture of mind and spirit, to whom the 
office might have been intrusted, and of my own daily and 
engrossing occupations in the duties of the ministry, leaving 
so little time or strength for any other occupation, however 
important, it isa matter almost of alarm that I find myself 
committed to a series of lectures for which the very best in- 
tellect, the soundest judgment, and the most deliberate study, 
are so much needed. But having undertaken the work, I 
trust the Lord has ordered the step in wisdom, and, if I seek 
his guidance, will enable me to go forward in a strength 
above my own; so that I may be the instrument, under his 
hand, of contributing something to promote the improve- 
ment and everlasting happiness of those to whom I may have 
the pleasure of speaking. 


16 | LECTURE I. 


The present lecture will be exclusively of an introductory 
kind. I pause at the threshold, in remembrance of the word 
and promise of God: “ In all thy ways acknowledge Him, 
and He shall direct thy steps.” 1 would devoutly acknow- 
ledge God as the omniscient witness in this undertaking ; 
the only source of wisdom, strength, and blessing, “ from 
whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works 
do proceed.”. May his Holy Spirit, through the mediation of 
his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is “ the way, the truth, 
and the life,” “ God, blessed for ever,” condescend to guide our 
way and help our infirmities, that all may see and embrace 
the TRUTH. 

The subject to which we are to direct our attention, has 
engaged the powers of wise, learned, and good men, in almost 
all ages since the promulgation of christianity. Minds of 
every class, and in all departments of intellectual occupation, 
have directly or indirectly, by design or unwittingly, contri- 
buted materials for its elucidation. Thus it has come to pass 
that the difficulty of an appropriate exhibition of the evi- 
dences of christianity is rather on the side of selection and 
arrangement and the just proportioning of arguments, than 
of theirsufficient multiplication. To give the various branches 
of the subject their just measure of relief and prominence ; 
to determine what should be displayed strongly and com- 
pletely, and what should be sketched with a lighter pencil, 
and placed in the background of the picture; to adjust the 
numerous parts in such symmetry as will present the whole 
with the most undivided and overcoming effect, is a difficulty 
of no little magnitude, where attention to space and time is 
of so much consequence as in the present undertaking. The 
nicest discrimination, the most logical taste, and a talent for 
extensive combination, may here find room for the exercise 
of all their powers. The danger is that one will lose him- 
self amidst the wide spread and accumulated treasures of 
“uustration and evidence ; that he will fail so entirely in their 


ey 


LECTURE 1. Wi 


classification as to see and exhibit them confusedly and un- 
justly, and for want of a good discipline among his own 
thoughts will lead out his forces in feeble detail, instead of 
forming them into compact masses, and meeting the enemy 
on every side with a self-sustained combination of strength. 

Before we proceed to the main question on which our sub- 
sequent lectures are to be employed, it will be well to call 
your attention to, 

I. The high importance of the investigation on which we 
are about to enter. You are to unite with me in examining 
the grounds on which the religion of the gospel claims to be 
received, to the exclusion of every other religion in the 
world, as containing the only way of duty and the only 
foundation of a sinner’s hope of saivation ; so that you may 
be enabled to answer satisfactorily to your own consciences 
and to all who may ask a reason of your belief, this great 
question: Is the religion of Jesus Christ as exhibited in the 
New Testament, a revelation from God, and consequently 
possessed of a sovereign right to universal faith and obe- 
dience ? 

There are considerations intrinsically belonging to this 
: question, which place it in an aspect of unrivalled importance. 
We must have the religion of Christ or none. A very 
little reflection will make it apparent, that the question as to 
the truth of christianity is not one of preference between two 
rival systems of doctrine, having conflicting claims and 
nearly balanced arguments and benefits; it is not whether 
the gospel is more true and salutary than some other mode 
of religion, which though inferior would still secure many 
of the most essential and substantial benefits for which reli- 
gion is desirable. But it is no other than the plain and 
solemn question, shall we believe in the faith of Christ, or in 
none? Shall we receive and be comforted by the light which 
the gospel has thrown over all our present interests and fu- 
ture prospects ; or shall our condition in this life—our rela- 


18 LECTURE I. 


tion to the future—what we are to be, and what we are to 
receive hereafter and for ever, be left in appalling, impenetra- 
ble darkness? Such is the real question when we inquire 
whether christianity is a revelation from God. Do any ask 
the reason? Because if such be the divine origin and autho- 
rity of the religion of Christ, there can be no other religion. 
It claims not only to stand—but to stand alone. It demands 
not only that we believe it—but that, in doing so, we consider 
ourselves as denying the truth of every other system of faith. 
Like the one living and true God, whose seal and character 
it bears, it is jealous, and will not share its honour with ano- 
ther ; but requires us to believe that, as there is but one Lord, 
so there is but one faith—zhe truth as it is in Jesus. On the 
other hand, if christianity be not of divine origin, it is no 
religion; its essential doctrines must be false; its whole 
structure baseless. Suppose then, for a moment, that such 
were the case, what could we substitute for the gospel? We 
must either plunge into the abyss of atheism, or find some- 
thing in the regions of paganism that would answer; or be 
content with the religion of Mohammed; or else find what 
our nature wants in that which is unjustly distinguished as 
the Rehgion of Nature, in other words, we must become 

Deisis. But is there a creed among the countless absurdi- 
ties of pagan belief and worship which any of us could be 
persuaded to adopt? Could we be convinced of the pro- 
phetic character of the Arabian impostor, and receive as of 
divine authority the professed revelations and unrighteous 
features of the Koran, after having rejected such a book as 
the New ‘Testament, and such evidences as those of Jesus 2 
Where else could we flee? To atheism? But that is the 
gulf in which all religions are lost——Darkness is on the face 
of the deep. Nothing remains that does not acknowledge 
the divine revelation of christianity, but the self-styled reli- 
gion of nature—deism. And what shall be said of this? | 
am. unable to give an account of it more definite than that it 


LECTURE. I. 19 


is the denial of christianity, on the one hand, and of atheism, 
on the other, and is to be found somewhere between these 
two infinitely distant extremes; but is never stationary, 
changing place with the times; accommodating its charac- 
ter to the disposition of every disciple, and permitting any 
one to assume the name of Deist who will only believe these 
two articles of faith—that there is a God, and that chris- 
tranity is untrue. Such is the religion which, according to 
Paine, “teaches us without the possibility of being mistaken 
all that is necessary or proper to be known.” And yet 
notwithstanding this boasted fulness and infallibility of in- 
struction, there is no agreement among Deists as to what 
their natural religion consists in, or as to the truth of whatsome 
of them consider its most fundamental doctrines. Their chief 
writers are altogether at variance as to whether there is any 
distinction between right and wrong, other than in the law of 
the land, or the customs of society ; whether there is a Provi- 
dence ; whether God is to be worshipped in prayer and praise, 
or the practice of virtue is not the only worship required ; 
whether the practice of virtue forbids or encourages deceit, 
suicide, revenge, adultery, and all uncleanness ; whether the 
soul is mortal or immortal ; whether God has any concern 
with human conduct. Now without spending a moment 
upon the question as to what evidence or what adaptation to 
the wants of men and of sinners, deism could pretend to, after 
the rejection of evidence and excellence such as those of the 
gospel ; let me ask whether deism can with any propriety be 
called religion? Does that deserve the name of a system of 
religious faith which has no settled doctrine upon the most 
essential points of belief and practice? which may acknow- 
ledge asmany contradictory forms, at the same moment, as it 
has disciples, and never could remain long enough in one 
position or under one countenance for the most skilful pencil 
to take its portrait? But aside from all this, it is too notori- 
ous to be argued, that whatever pretensions may have been 


20 LECTURE 1. 


advanced by Deists to something like a theory of religious 
belief, it is at best a mere theory ; utterly powerless in prac- 
tice, except to liberate its disciples from all conscientious 
restraint upon their passions, and promote in the public mind 
the wildest licentiousness as to all moral obligation. Substi- 
tute deism for christianity, and none acquainted with the 
nature or history of man can help acknowledging that as to 
all the beneficial influence of religion upon heart and life, in 
promoting either the moral purity of individuals, or the hap- 
piness of society, we shall have no religion at all. When 
have Deists ever maintained a habit of private, family, or 
public worship? Attempts have been made among them to 
keep up some mode of congregational service, but total failure, 
in every instance, has proved how forced was the effort, and 
how little it would have been thought of, had it not been for 
the surrounding influence of christianity. The first attempt 
was by a man in England, who styled himself the Priest of 
Nature. He relapsed from being a dissenting preacher in 
England, of an orthodox creed, to socinianism, thence to 
deism; after which he set up in London a house of worship, 
formed a liturgy, was patronised by some persons of influ- 
ence, preached and collected some disciples. But most of 
his people became Atheists; and after an experiment of four 
years, the congregation was reduced to nothing, funds failed, 
and the effort was abandoned. The most formidable enter- 
prise in this way took place in France during the revo- 
sution. Having found by some experience that to acknow- 
ledge no God was to have no law ; and to be without religious 
institutions was to want civilization and peace ; certain per- 
sons distinguished for learning, and calling themselves Theo- 
philanthropists, set up a society for the worship of God on 
the principles of deism. The desolated churches of Paris 
were given for their object. A directory of deistical worship 
was published, containing prayers and hymns. Lectures 
were substituted for sermons. 'The.ceremonies were simple, 


LECTURE I. 21 


tasteful, and classical. Music added its charms. ‘The form 
of worship was sent into all parts of the country, and great 
exertions were made by the powers of the state to get up this 
religion in every town. Circumstances were exceedingly 
propitious to the enterprise. Christianity had been banished. 
Her witnesses were in sackcloth. She had none to oppose 
themselves to the scheme of her enemies. ‘The country was 
sick of the horrors of atheism. Some religion was demanded 
by public feeling. 'This contrivance had nothing in it offen- 
sive to the sinner, while it seemed to be skilfully adapted to 
the people and the times. Moreover, it was patronised by 
government, and conformed to by the learned. 'The cere- 
monies were well performed—the musical accompaniments 
excellent. But all would not do. No sooner had novelty 
ceased, than the assemblies were thinned. The trifling 
expenses of music and apparatus could not be raised out of 
the liberality of the people. 'The society was split up with 
dissensions, some refusing the manual of worship; others 
complaining against the lecturers as aiming at too much 
power ; others demanding that the creed of the society 
should be more liberal and allow a greater latitude of belief. 
None at last could be got to lecture. 'T'o keep up the popular 
interest, and to escape the charge of bigotry, religious festi- 
vals were appointed, in which a union of service was 
attempted to be formed between Jews, Protestants, Catholics. 
Deists, and Atheists. "Where were festivals in honour of 
Socrates, of Rousseau, and of Washington. At one of these 
a banner inscribed with the name Morality was carried by a 
man notorious as a professor of atheism. But all would not 
do. ‘The great principle of religion was wanting. 'There 
was no devotional spirit. 'The body was dead, and therefore 
soon tumbled to dust. A short time after, a counsellor of 
France, in a public address, declared the result of the expe- 
riment in these words: “ For want of a religious education 
for the last ten years, our children are without any ideas of a 


22 LECTURE I. 


Divinity, without any notion of what is just and unjust ; 
hence arise barbarous manners, hence a people become fero- 
cious. Alas! what have we gained by deviating from the 
path pointed out by our ancestors? What have we gained 
by substituting vain and abstract doctrines for the creed 
which actuated the minds of Turenne, Fenelon, and Pas- 
cal?”* I cannot omit, in connexion with these striking con- 
fessions, the description given by one of the most famous 
infidels in those times, of all that class of philosophers whose 
views and schemes we have been noticing. 'Thus writes 
Rousseau: “I have consulted our philosophers, I have 
perused their books, I have examined their several opinions, 
I have found them all proud, positive, and dogmatizing even 
in their pretended scepticism, knowing every thing, proving 
nothing, and ridiculing one another; and this is the only 
point in which they concur, and in which they are right. If 
you count their number, each one is reduced to himself; they 
never unite but to dispute. I conceived that the insufficiency 
of the human understanding was the first cause of this pro- 
digious diversity of sentiment, and that pride was the second. 
If our philosophers were able to discover truth, which of them 
would interest himself about it? Where is the philosopher 
who for his own glory would not willingly deceive the whole 
human race? Where is he who in the secret of his heart 
proposes any other object than his own distinction? 'The 
great thing for him is to think differently from other people. 
Under pretence of being themselves the only people enlight- 
ened, they imperiously subject us to their magisterial decisions, 
and would fain palm upon us, for the true causes of things, 
the unintelligible systems they have erected in their own 
neads. Whilst they overturn, destroy, and trample under foot, 
all that mankind reveres; snatch from the afflicted the only 


* For more particulars, see Alexander’s Evidences—Dwight’s Sermons, 
ia. 


LECTURE I. 23 


comfort left them in their misery; from the rich and great 
the only curb that can restrain their passions; tear from the 
heart all remorse of vice, all hopes of virtue; and still boast 
themselves the benefactors of mankind. ‘'Truth, they say, 
‘is never hurtful toman.’ I believe that as well as they ; and 
the same, in my opinion, is a proof that what they teach is 
not the truth.”* Such are the singular expressions of a 
noted infidel, into whose mind the truth sometimes forced an 
entrance, in spite of all his levity of mind and profligacy of 
life. "They are the confessions of one of the chief actors in 
the farce of natural religion, and by leading us behind the 
scenes, display in a most impressive light, that if deism be 
the only substitute of christianity, we must have no religion 
or that of Jesus. So that, in examining the evidences of 
christianity, we should solemnly feel that the question before 
us is of no less magnitude than whether life and immortality 
have been brought to light by the gospel, or they are still 
involved in deep and confounding darkness; whether religion 
is revealed in the Bible, or every thing on earth under the 
name of religion is false and impotent. Now, when it is 
considered what desolation would sweep at once over all the 
interests of society, were the restraint of religion withdrawn 
from the flood-gates of human corruption; what immense 
benefits have ensued, and must ensue, even by the confession 
of some of its most violent opposers, from the diffusion of 
the gospel; what happy effects upon the character and pre- 
sent happiness of its genuine disciples it has always pro- 
duced ; reforming their lives, purifying their hearts, elevating 
their affections, healing the wounds of the guilty, taking 
away the sting of death, and lighting even the sepulchre 
with a hope full of glory; when it is considered what high 
claims the gospel asserts to an unlimited sovereignty over all 


* Gandolphy’s Defence of the Ancient Faith: quoted in Gregory’s Let- 
ters, i., p. p. 6 and 7. 


24 LECTURE I. 


our affections and faculties, requiring our entire submission, 
promising to every devout believer eternal life, and to all that 
refuse its claims everlasting wo: it must at once be evident 
that the subject before us isno matter of mere intellectual 
interest, but one in which every expectant of eternity has an 
immeasurable stake. No mind has any right to indifference 
here. Without the most wonderful folly no mind can be 
indifferent here. Whether the claims of the gospel are the 
claims of God is a question to which in point of importance 
no other can pretend a comparison, except this one—eliev- 
ing im those claims, am I surrendered to their governance ? 

But I speak to a great many who have no difficulty on this 
head, being fully satisfied that the gospel of Christ is a divine 
revelation. What concern have they with the investigation 
before us? “ Much every way.” The question for them to 
ask, is, on what grounds are we satisfied 2 Are we believers 
in christianity because we were born of believing parents, 
and have always lived in a Christian country ; or because 
we have considered the excellence and weighed the proofs of 
this religion, and are intelligently persuaded that i de- 
serves our reliance? 1 am well aware that there are many 
truly devoted followers of Christ who have never made 
the evidences of christianity their study, and in argument 
with an infidel, would be easily confounded by superior skill 
and information ; but whose belief nevertheless is, in the 
highest degree, that of rational conviction, since they possess 
in themselves the best of all evidence that the gospel of 
Christ is “the power and wisdom of God,” having experi- 
enced its transforming, purifying, elevating, and enlightening 
efficacy upon their own hearts and characters. Did such 
believers abound, christianity would be much less in need of 
other evidence. Were all that call themselves Christians 
thus experimentally convinced of the preciousness of the 
gospel, I would still urge upon them the duty and advantage 
of studying as far as possible the various arguments which 


LECTURE I. 25 


illustrate the divinity of its origin. I would urge it on con- 
siderations of personal pleasure and spiritual improvement. 
There is a rich feast of knowledge and of devout contempla- 
tion to be found in this study. The serious believer, who has 
not pursued it, has yet to learn with what wonderful and 
impressive light the God of the gospel has manifested its 
truth. Its evidences are not only convincing, but delight- 
fully plain; astonishingly accumulated, and of immense 
variety, as well as strength. He who will take the pains 


not only to pursue the single line of argument which may 


seem enough to satisfy his own mind; but devoutly to follow 
up, in succession, all those great avenues which lead to the 
gospel as the central fountain of truth, will be presented, at 
every step, with such evident marks of the finger of God; 
he will hear from every quarter such reiterated assurances of: 
“ this is the way; walk thou init ;’ he will find himself so 
enclosed on every hand by insurmountable evidences shut- 
ting him up unto the faith of Christ, that new views will 
open upon him of the real cause and guilt and danger of all 
unbelief ; new emotions of gratitude and admiration will 
arise in his heart for a revelation so divinely attested ; his 
zeal will receive a new impulse to follow and promote such 
heavenly light. 

But I would urge this study on all serious believers, who 
have the means of pursuing it, as a matter of duty. It is 
not enough that they are well satisfied. 'They have a cause 
to defend and promote, as well as a faith to love and enjoy. 
It is enjoined on them, by the authority of their Divine 
Master, that they be ready to give to every man that asketh 
them, a reason of the hope that is in them. 'They must be 
able to answer intelligently the question: Why do you believe 
in christianity 2? For this purpose, it is not enough to be 
able to speak of a sense of the truth, arising from an inward 
experience of its power and blessedness. ‘This is excellent 


evidence for one’s own mind; but it cannot be felt or under- 
oan 


26 LECTURE I. 


stood by an unbeliever. ‘The Christian advocate must have 
a knowledge of the arguments by which infidelity may be 
confounded ; as well as an experience of the benefits for 
which the gospel should be loved. To obtain this in pro- 
portion to his abilities, he is bound by the all-important con- 
sideration that the religion of Jesus cannot be content while 
one soul remains in the rejection of her light and life. She 
seeks not only to be maintained, but to bring all mankind to 
her blessings. 'The benevolence of a Christian should stimu- 
late him to be well armed for the controversy with unbe- 
lievers. Benevolence, while it should constrain the infidel 
most carefully to conceal his opinions lest others be so 
unhappy as to feel their ague and catch their blight, should 
invigorate the believer with the liveliest zeal to bring over 
his fellow-creatures to the adoption of a faith so glorious in 
its hopes and so ennobling in its influence. Even on the 
supposition that christianity were false, unspeakably better 
should we think it, to be deluded’ by consolations which, 
though groundless, would be still so precious ; than enlight- 
ened by an infidelity which shrouds its disciples in such 
darkness, and drowns them in such confusion. 

But if such are the weighty considerations which should 
induce an experienced Christian to study the evidences of 
christianity, while he carries in his own breast the strongest 
of all assurances of its having the witness of the Spirit of 
God, how much more should this subject receive the attention 
of that numerous portion of the population of a Christian 
iand who, while they are called Christians, have never expe- 
rienced in their hearts the blessedness of the gospel. These 
are eminently dependent on this study for all rational and 
steadfast belief. Being destitute of the anchor obtained by 
an inward sense of the divine excellence of the truth as it 1s 
in Jesus, they must spread their sails to the influence of 
external evidence, or be liable to be tossed about with every 
wind of doctrine, and wrecked against the cliffs of infidelity. 


LECTURE I. 27 


It is a matter of great importance that the attention of this 
class should be much more extensively obtained to the proofs 
of the religion in which they profess to believe. Multitudes 
of men, well informed on other subjects, are believers, for 
hardly any other reason than because their parents were so, 
and the fashion of society is on this side. 'The same con- 
siderations that make them Christians in this land, would 
have made them enemies of christianity in others: Pagans 
in India, Mohammedans in Turkey. They can give a better 
reason for every other opinion they profess, than for their 
acknowledgment of the gospel of Christ. The efforts of 
infidels, combining ingenious sophistry with high preten- 
sions to learning, and coming into alliance with strong dis- 
positions of human nature, have an open field, and must be 
expected to do a fearful work among minds thus undisci- 
plined and unarmed. It is only in the lowest possible sense 
of the word that they can receive the name of believers. 
Instead of adding strength to the cause of christianity, by 
their numbers, they rather embarrass it by their ignorance 
of its weapons, and bring it into disrepute by the ease with 
which they are entrapped in the snares of the enemy. 'They 
have no conception what a truth that is which they so care- 
lessly acknowledge ; how wnpressively it is true ; with what 
awful authority it is invested; what a wonder is involved in 
professing to believe and refusing to obey it. Do I speak to 
any who are thus situated? I would earnestly exhort them, 
for their own satisfaction and steadfastness as believers in 
revelation, for the purpose of realizing how solemnly the 
living God has called them to submit as well as assent, to 
the gospel of Christ, and for the honour of a religion which 
so abounds in the best of reasons, to make a serious study of 
the evidences of christianity. 

To any whose minds are not settled with regard to this 
momentous question ; or who consider themselves as having 
arrived at a definite opinion against the divine authority of 


28 LECTURE I. 


the gospel, need I say a word to show why they, of all others, 
should give the subject in view their most serious and dili- 
gent attention? Suppose they should become fixed in the 
rejection of christianity, and to the influence of their exam- 
ple on the side of infidelity, should add the effort of argument, 
tending to weaken the faith of others, and to increase the 
number of enemies to Christ; and finally, should be con- 
vinced on the verge of the grave (as many of this mind have 
been most painfully convinced,) or in eternity, should have 
it discovered to them that what they have been setting at 
nought was no less than God’s own revelation, the gospel of 
him who cometh to judge the quick and dead; and that 
what they had embraced, and led others to embrace, in its 
stead, was only a miserable offspring of human pride and 
-folly, a spirit of delusion and eternal destruction ; what then 
would seem the importance of a serious application of mind 
and heart to this study; the madness of treating it with in- 
difference, or pursuing it without the strictest impartiality ? 
That such a discovery is at least as likely as the contrary, 
even infidels, in their continual declarations that all beyond 
the grave is unknown, have given impressive confessions. 
That it is at least exceedingly probable, independently of 
positive evidence, the unbeliever cannot but fear when he 
surveys the history of the world, and sees what minds and 
what hearts, what men of learning and of holiness have been 
ready to suffer any earthly loss or pain, rather than be unas- 
sociated with the eternal blessedness of the discipleship of 
Christ. 

I have now exhibited something of the incomparable im- 
portance of the question before us, as considered by itself. 
There is an additional importance in its present investiga- 
tion, arising out of the peculiar character of the present 
times. 

We rejoice with others in the belief that this age, in com- 
parison with all before it, merits distinction as an age of free- 


LECTURE I. 29 


dom. We rejoice that it is an age of freedom, as well in the 
investigation of all truth as in the assertion of all political 
rights. But what is called the spirit of freedom 1s not every 
where identical with the cause of truth and right. In one 
region, it is the calm, deliberate determination to be governed 
only by just and equal laws; in another, it is the furious, 
desolating despiser of all laws, but those of one’s own pas- 
sion and selfishness. ‘This is seen, as well in the discussion 
of religious truth, as in the vindication of assumed principles 
of civil liberty. "There are certain just and necessary laws 
to govern us in reasoning, as much as in acting ; to regulate 
the investigation of moral and religious, as well as physical 
and political subjects. 'True liberty of mind consists in the 
right of being governed by these laws, and no other ; and at 
the same time asserts their absolute ne¢essity. But there isa 
spirit abroad which, under the name of freedom of opinion, 
would set at defiance all the fundamental laws of reasoning, 
and denounce, as the offspring of intellectual despotism, 
whatever principles of moral evidence are at variance with 
itself. 'This is licentiousness; not freedom. It is the enemy 
of law, not of oppression: the very menial of mental degra- 
dation, instead of what it boasts itself, the prompter of manly, 
elevated, independent intellect. This spirit of evil is greatly 
on the increase, because the name and boast of freedom are 
circulating far more rapidly in this world, than the know- 
ledge of its character or the possession of its blessings; be- 
cause it is so much easier for the mass of society to burst at 
once the whole body of law by which mind is restrained, 
than to separate between the precious and the vile; and 
chiefly because with the many, there is too little reflection 
and too little moral principle, when religion is in question, 
to appreciate the important difference between the oppression 
of opinion in matters of reason, and the just government of 
reason in matters of opinion. Nothing, in truth, has so pro- 
moted the freedom of thought, of opinion, and of action, as 


30 LECTURE I. 


christianity. If any thing, under her name, has been guilty 
of the opposite, it has been, so far forth, the corruption of 
her character and the denial of her principles. Pure chris- 
tianity has ever proclaimed liberty to the captive, as well in 
mental as in physical slavery. The ages of the purest 
freedom have been those of her greatest advancement. She 
courts investigation when it is free; but rejects it when 
licentious. She is the patroness of law, and will be judged: 
only by law. Bring her trial to the judgment seat of that 
inductive philosophy which one of her own children first 
illustrated, and which, on other subjects, the world has 
learned to use so well and prize so highly: let her be judged 
by the evidence of fact, and she is satisfied. But this reason- 
able privilege it is more than ever the spirit of self constituted 
philosophers, in their loud declamation against the slavery of 
opinion, and their licentious rebellion against all the laws of 
reasoning, to refuse. Hence the greater importance that our 
present subject, in all its departments, from the most funda- 
mental principles of evidence, to the highest point of induct- 
ive argument, should be thoroughly studied by all whose 
interest it is to know, and whose duty it is to vindicate, the 
truth. 

But there is one more consideration, in connexion with 
the present age, illustrating the peculiar importance of the 
study you are now commencing. ‘The evidences of chris- 
tianity, while specially assailed, in these times, with a licen- 
tiousness and effrontery which the dignity of no truth can 
countenance, and the chastity of religious truth should never 
meet, are favoured, at the same time, with advantages for 
convincing illustration such as no preceding age ever fur- 
nished. 'Time, while it has impaired the strength of none of 
our ancient arguments, has greatly increased the weight of 
some, and has added, and is daily adding, new auxiliaries to 
a body of proof which its enemies have never venturea to 
attack in front. Every new year, in the age and trials of our 


LECTURE I. 31 


holy faith, is an additional evidence that, like the pyramids 
of Memphis, it was made to endure. It wears well. Chris- 
tianity has been journeying, for the last eighteen hundred 
years, through unceasing trials. While as yet an infant in 
a land of almost Egyptian darkness, a Jewish Pharaoh 
attempted to strangle her in the cradle. She grew up in 
contempt and poverty, and began her course, like Israel of 
old, through a Red Sea of relentless persecution. Bitter 
waters awaited her subsequent progress. Amalek with all 
the principalities and powers of earth, during more than 
three centuries, opposed her march. Fiery serpents in the 
wilderness of sin have ever been stinging at her feet. The 
world has opened. no fountain, nor vouchsafed any bread to 
sustain her. What alliances the nations have ever made 
with her cause have only given them the greater power to 
encumber and divide her strength. Her drink has been 
drawn from the rock; her bread has been gathered in the 
desert. Nothing that malice, or learning, or power, or per- 
severance, couid do to arrest her goings, has been wanting. 
Even treachery in her own household has often endea- 
voured to betray her into the hands of the enemy. No age 
has encountered her advance with such a dangerous variety 
of force ; or with a more boastful confidence of success, than 
the present. And yet in none, since that of the primitive 
Christians, has her triumph been so glorious, or her conquest 
so.extensive. Ata time of life when, considering her fiery 
trials, one ignorant of her nature would expect to see her 
wrinkled with age and crippled with manifold infirmities, it 
may be said of her, with perfect truth, that though for more 
than eighteen hundred years she has been journeying through 
conflicts and trials innumerable, her eye is not dim, nor her 
natural force abated. She remains unchanged by time, the 
same precisely as when first proclaimed in the streets of 
Jerusalem. 'The shield of faith, the breastplate of righteous- 
ness, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, are 


32 LECTURE 1. 


neither broken nor decayed, but as ready as in the begin- 
ning, to go forth « conquering and to conquer.” This long 
and hard experiment proves that she is made for eternity. 
It is the privilege of our age to appreciate the evidence of 
this with more satisfaction than any preceding it. But how 
different, this sublime immutability of christianity, so much 
like the eternity of God, from the childish fickleness of infi- 
delity. What is the history of infidelity, but a history of 
changes? Where is the resemblance between the writings 
of its modern and those of its ancient disciples 2. What 
Celsus and Porphyry attempted to maintain against primi 
tive christianity, none at present would think of advocating; 
while the positions and reasonings of recent infidels would 
have been subjects of ridicule among their earliest brethren. 
“The doctrines which Herbert and Tindal declared to be so 
evident that God could not make them more evident, were 
wholly given up as untenable by Hume ; and the scepticism 
of Hume sustained no higher character in the mind of 
D’Alembert. Mere infidelity gave up natural religion, and 
atheism mere infidelity. Atheism is the system at present in 
vogue. What will succeed it, cannot be foreseen. One 
consolation, however, attends the subject, and that is: no 
other system can be so groundless, so despicable, or so com- 
pletely ruinous to the morals and happiness of mankind.”* 
But there is another aspect in which the study of the 
evidences of christianity is presented as especially interesting, 
in connexion with the present age. This is an age pe- 
culiarly distinguished for scientific research and discovery. 
Never did science travel so widely, explore so deeply, analyze 
so minutely, compare so critically the present with the past, 
principles with facts ; histories of ancient times, with monu- 
ments of ancient things; truths of revealed religion, with 
results of experimental philosophy. And what is the con- 
Ee ae 


* Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. 


LECTURE. I. 33 


sequence? Has the Pentateuch suffered by him who found 
the key, and applied it to the hieroglyphical memorials on the 
marbles and porphyries of Egypt? Did the geological 
researches of the lamented Cuvier enfeeble his belief in the 
Mosaic history ?* 

I venture to say there never was an age in which it could 
be asserted, with so much practical witness, that science and 
every extension of human knowledge are strengthening and 
multiplying the evidences of christianity. Add to this, the 
ever accumulating force of the argument from prophecy, a 
source of evidence in which we exceed by far the primitive 
times of the gospel, and which must be increasing as long as 
one prediction of the Bible remains to be fulfilled. Then 
consider what new exhibitions the present age of signal 
enterprise, in all things, has furnished, and is daily presenting 
of the power attendant upon the gospel to overcome every 
obstacle, and make the moral desert a garden, and savages 
meek and lowly of heart. Look at the missionary stations 
of the Pacific and of Hindoostan, and among our own frontier 
tribes. There it will be seen that christianity has still her 
apostles, her martyrs, her conquests. The idol cast to the 
ground ; the idol temple purged of its pollutions, and conse- 
crated to Jehovah; the multitude, once naked devotees of 
demons, now clothed and in their right mind, and sitting at 
the feet of Jesus; these are some of our additional testimonies 
to the gospel, that her arm is not shortened that it cannot save. 
But they are not all. Every new traveller into regions 
hitherto but little known, as he developes the condition of 
nations destitute of the gospel, increases our evidence of the 


utter helplessness of human reason, and the total prostration 
amt co eM Bite! otc Bul Poh fa css al 

* It is an interesting fact, well worthy of being recorded, that Cuvier, 
whose death has been recently announced, was to have presided at the next 
annual meeting of the Bible Society of Paris; and had proposed, as the topic 
of his address, the agreement between the Mosaic history and the modern dis- 
coveries in geology. ‘ 3 


o4 
Oe LECTURE I. 


of human nature, without the light which we enjoy, and, 
consequently, our evidence of the universal need of a reve- 
lation like ours, as well as of the benefits which have follow- 
ed in the train of christianity wherever she has been re- 
ceived. And Jast, but not least, our experience of the tender 
mercies of infidelity is more impressive than that of prece- 
ding ages. Its nature, spirit, personal and public consequen- 
ces have now had time to speak out, and make a full display 
of their benefits to all classes of mankind. Our times have 
seen enough; any of us have heard enough to form some 
adequate idea of what society would be favoured with, in 
personal consolations ; in domestic peace and purity; in pub- 
lic security and order, should the principles of infidelity be 
generally adopted as the basis of individual, family, and na- 
tional government. 

I have now endeavoured to illustrate the importance of a 
diligent attention to the great subject we have undertaken to 
treat, by considerations arising out of its own intrinsic nature, 
and from its special aspect as associated with the distinctive 
character of the present age. I will occupy buta little while 
longer in speaking of, | 

Il. The importance of strict attention to the spirit in 
which we should examine the evidences of christianity. 

“ Blessed (said the Saviour) is he whosoever shall not be 
offended in me.” ‘There is a great deal in the religion of 
Jesus. at which the natural dispositions of man are offended. 
He is proud—the gospel demands humility ; revengeful—the 
gospel demands forgiveness. Man is prone to set his affec- 
tions on things on the earth; the gospel requires him to set 
them on those which are above. He is wedded to self- 
indulgence, glories in being his own master, idolizes himself, 
encourages self-dependence, boasts his own goodness, lives 
without God in the world. All this the gospel peremptorily 
condemns ; requires him to repent of it, to deny himself, 
renounce all right over himself, give up his will to that of 


LECTURE I. 35 


God, live for the Lord Jesus, and lean upon and glory in him 
alone as all his strength, hope, and righteousness. Hence it 
is evident that the natural heart and the precepts of chris- 
tianity are directly at variance. “The mystery of an incar. 
nate and crucified Saviour must necessarily confound the 
reason and shock the prejudices, of a mind which will admit 
nothing that it cannot perfectly reduce to the principles of 
philosophy. The whole tenor of the life of Christ, the 
objects he pursued, and the profound humiliation he exhi- 
bited, must convict of madness and folly the favourite pur- 
suits of mankind. 'The virtues usually practised in society, 
and the models of excellence most admired there, are so 
remote from that holiness which is enjoined in the New 'Tes- 
tament, that it is impossible for a taste which is formed on the 
one to perceive the charms of the other. The happiness 
which it proposes in a union with God, and a participation 
of the image of Christ, is so far from being congenial to the 
inclinations of worldly men, that it can scarcely be men- 
tioned without exciting their ridicule and scorn. General 
speculations on the Deity have much to amuse the mind, and 
to gratify that appetite for the wonderful, which thoughtful 
and speculative men are delighted to indulge. Religion 
viewed in this light appears more in the form of an exercise 
to the understanding, than a law to the heart. Here the soul 
expatiates at large, without feeling itself controlled or alarmed. 
But when evangelical truths are presented, they bring God 
so near, if we may be allowed the expression, and speak with 
so commanding a.voice to the conscience, that they leave no 
alternative, but that of submissive acquiescence or proud 
revolt.”* | 
Hence the question as to the truth of christianity is pecu 
liar. You can investigate the truth of a narrative in com- 


* Robert Hail. 


36 LECTURE I. 


mon history, or of a phenomenon in physical science, or of 
a principle of political economy, with the coolness of a mere 
intellectual exercise. One sets out in such pursuits with no 
feelings already enlisted. Had this been the case, with regard 
to the divine origin of christianity, “a tenth part of the tes- 
timony which has actually been given, would have been 
enough to satisfy us; the testimony, both in weight and 
quantity, would have been looked upon as quite unexampled 
in the whole compass of ancient literature.”* But here the 
question is one of feeling, as well as evidence ; enlisting the 
heart, as well as the head. Powerful dispositions crowd 
around the investigation. Hence one is in danger, unless 
his natural inclinations be subdued, of looking at the argu- 
ment through a medium which, while it diminishes the 
importance of the evidence, will magnify the objections. 
This explains sufficiently how it has happened that there 
have been men of learning and talents and much practical 
wisdom, in many departments, who have become and con- 
tinued unbelievers. ‘Their dispositions were stronger than 
their talents, and moulded the latter to their own service, 
instead. of yielding to their guidance. The examination 
was conducted rather by the test of inclination, than of 
evidence. Now it is no part of the profession of christianity 
to furnish eyes to those who will not see. Evidence that 
will force its way irresistibly through prejudice and unwil- 
lingness, compelling submission, she does not promise. 
Enough to satisfy, abundantly, every candid, serious, dili- 
gent, humble inquirer, she does profess to give. If she ever 
exhibit more, it is beyond her stipulation, and more than any 
have reason to demand. 

The pride of human reason is often deeply offended at 
the claims of christianity. The. gospel demands to be 
received as a revelation of truth, communicated by autho- 


* Chalmers. 


LECTURE I. a7 


rity, so that a wise man shall have no room to ascribe his 
knowledge of God and of His will, to his own powers of 
discovery ; but has to sit, just where the ignorant and lowly 
must sit, at the feet of Jesus. This pleases not the specula- 
tive and ambitious turn of the human intellect. Men like to 
find out truth by reasonings of their own, instead of the 
authoritative declarations of another, even though that other 
be infallible wisdom. 'They love to theorize and conjecture, 
and try the ingenuity of their own faculties, so as to praise 
themselves for whatever is ascertained. Hence, in matters 
of science, there was a long and hard struggle before they 
could be brought down from the proud flights of speculation, 
and consent to the self-denial of the inductive method, sub- 
mitting to be instructed only by the revelations of experiment, 
and in the unpretending school of fact. 'T'o adopt the same 
method in matters of religious investigation, many are not 
yet willing. ‘To give up all speculation—philosophy, “falsely 
so called”—and consent to receive, instead of being ambitious 
to discover, religious truth; to receive it at a source where 
the humblest and the loftiest mind must drink together, out 
of the same cup; to receive it on the simple testimony of a 
well attested revelation, which lies as open to the peasant as 
the philosopher : this the wise men of the world are slow of 
heart to consent to. Their pride of reason is offended. Did 
an account come to them from the other continent of certain 
novel and interesting phenomena recently observed in the 
heavens; they would see at once how unphilosophical it 
would be to commence theorizing upon the question of their 
truth, and then reject them because inconsistent with certain 
previous speculations of their own. They would institute 
but the one inquiry: Is there reason to depend upon the 
accuracy of the observations, and the honesty of the reports 
of those from whom these statements proceed? Satisfied on 
this head, they would at once receive the phenomena, and 
every truth resulting ae on the great principle of 


38 LECTURE I. 


modern science, that whatever is thus collected by induction 
must be recewed, notwithstanding any conjectural hypothesis 
to the contrary, until contradicted or limited by other phe- 
nomena equally authenticated. Now we only ask them, not 
to disown the philosophy of Newton in examining the evi- 
dence of the religion of Christ ; to try the celestial wonders, 
the “mecanique celeste,” as given by Christ and his apostles, 
not by theory or speculation, but precisely as they would+try 
any other, in the open field of fact and induction. We do 
not ask them to believe, unless upon the credit of facts. But 
we do ask that whatever is thus proved, they will receive, 
notwithstanding any conjectural hypothesis to the contrary. 
The whole argument for christianity, so far from being in 
any degree theoretical or speculative, is eminently one of 
experimental evidence and inductive simplicity. We take 
the position that our Lord Jesus Christ professed to make a 
revelation from God. It is conceded that if he attested his 
communications by miracles, he sealed that profession as 
true. We say he did thus attest them. But miracles are 
facts—phenomena—to be proved by the testimony of eye- 
witnesses, like any phenomena in physics. 'T'o such testi- 
mony we appeal. We ask the unbeliever to refute it; and 
if he cannot, to receive the revelation, and bow to its decla- 
rations as the attested word of God. But here, unfortunately, 
we set the rule of sound philosophy against the dispositions 
of an unhumbled heart. 'The latter has the victory, often ; 
and the wise man goes to work to oppose our facts, with his 
theories; our testimony, with his speculations, till he flatters 
himself, because he has covered up his eyes in his own 
mazes, that he has refuted the evidences of christianity. 
Hence, therefore, another cause that learned men are not all 
believers in christianity. They are not all humble enough, 
in a question with which heart and life are so much con- 
jected, to abide by the results to which the principles of phi- 
losophical investigation would naturally lead them. But 


LECTURE I. 39 


hence, also, a most important reason that whoever of you 
may have doubts as to the gospel of Christ, should, in the 
pursuit on which we have entered, be cautious, candid, ready 
to learn, and determined to embrace the truth wherever it 
should be found. 

One consideration more. It is true of christianity, as of 
many other excellent subjects, that objections are more easily 
invented than answered. Objections in such matters are 
usually light affairs, floating on the surface of men’s thoughts. 
Answers, to be solid, must be heavier and lie deeper, requiring, 
like the pearl, both labour and skill to bring them up and 
fashion them for use. But christianity is peculiarly exposed 
to objections; from the simple fact that as it meets every 
body and compels every body to say yea or nay to its require- 
ments, every body must needs have something to say, how- 
ever unreasonable, in its favour or against it. Few indeed 
would venture to give an opinion, without some study, on a 
question in science or polite literature ; but the most ignorant 
and. unthinking will undertake an opinion upon the merits 
of the gospel, and raise an objection in a breath which would 
require much patience and some learning to refute. Hun- 
dreds hear the objection ; thousands relish, retain, and are poi- 
soned by it; while, perhaps, not one of them has the dispo- 
sition to hear, or patience enough to understand, the reply. 
Evil hearts can do what only good and well instructed minds 
ean undo. “ Pertness and ignorance may ask a question, in 
three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty 
pages to answer. When this is done, the same question will 
be triumphantly asked again the next year, as if nothing 
had ever been written on the subject. And as people, in 
general, for one reason or another, like short objections better 
than long answers; in this mode of disputation (if it can be 
styled such) the odds must ever be against us; and we must 
be content with those for our friends who have honesty and 


40 LECTURE I. 


erudition, candour and patience, to study both sides of the 
question.”* 

These observations explain the lamentable fact, that, in a 
large portion of society, there is so much more acquaintance 
with the cant and slang of infidelity, than with the reason- 
ings in support of christianity ; that our young men are often 
so familiar with the boasting and floating calumnies which 
the troubled sea of infidelity is ever casting up, with its mire 
and dirt, in the face of the gospel; while, with the innume- 
rable efforts by which christian science has scattered all such 
poisonous exhalations to the winds, many have not the most 
trifling acquaintance. | 

All these considerations are at least sufficient to impress us 
with the eminent importance of the most serious attention to 
. the spirit and manner in which one proceeds in the study of 
the evidences of christianity. 

Let me urgently recommend docility, in this pursuit. By 
this, I mean nothing resembling credulity ; but an open- 
hearted and humble-minded readiness to weigh evidence 
with simplicity of purpose in the most even scales of truth ; 
and then to submit to, and follow the truth, wherever it may 
lead, with singleness of heart, in the fear of God. 

Let me also recommend a deep seriousness of purpose, in 
this pursuit. I mean that calm and settled earnestness of 
mind, which a just sense of the unspeakable importance of 
the subject, and of the responsibility under which all, even 
the most indifferent, must treat it, will necessarily inspire. 

Lastly, prayer is by all means to be employed in this pur- 
suit. Itis written most wisely: “If any man lack wisdom, 
let him ask of God.” But do I forget that I am speaking 
from the chair of a lecture room, instead of the pulpit of a 
church? Prayer! How do I know but that I am addressing 
many who are already on the side of infidelity? Would I 


* Horne’s Letters on Infidelity. 


7 


LECTURE I. Al 


say to them, study the evidences of christianity with prayer 2 
Is it not equivalent to begging the question ? Is it not asking 
them to do what, as professors of infidelity, they object to 2 
In one sense, I verily believe it is begging the question. A 
spirit of serious, earnest prayer, for the knowledge of truth, 
is utterly inconsistent with the spirit of infidelity. Who does 
not feel the singularity involved in the idea of seeing a tho- 
rough infidel engaged in secret, earnest prayer, to be pre- 
served from all bias in search of truth, and to be led in the 
way in which God would have him to go? And yet, if he 
be not an Atheist, he can have nothing to say against the 
propriety of such a step. But is it true that infidelity and 
the spirit of prayer are practically so inconsistent? Is it 
true that we have already accomplished at least half our 
work of conviction, when we have persuaded an unbeliever 
to make religious truth a subject of serious supplication at 
the throne of grace’? What does this say for the gospel ? 

Any, who are very anxious to continue in unbelief, had 
better not pray. They might find out more than would be 
convenient, by such an effort. Infidelity cannot tolerate so 
much seriousness. But if any feel that they lack wisdom, 
in this great concern of eternity, and desire to know the way 
of light and life: “let them ask of Giod, who giveth to alt 
men liberally and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given 
them.” 


42 LECTURE Il. 


LECTURE II. 
AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 


Our last lecture was only introductory to the important 
subject to which I have undertaken to lead your attention. 
In the present, we enter directly upon one of its principal 
branches. 

The study of the evidences of christianity may be either 
brief or extended, according to the object with which it is 
pursued. If it be merely the possession of some one distinct 
and conclusive train of reasoning, perfect in itself, the inves- 
tigation may soon be ended. The student may take any 
single miracle or fulfilled prophecy; he may choose his 
premises from the narrative of the resurrection of Christ, or 
the conversion of St. Paul, or the propagation of christianity, 
and, confining his argument to the point selected, may deduce 
a finished proof of the divine authority of the gospel. But 
if he desire not only rational satisfaction for his own mind, 
but a full view of all those great highways of evidence 
which, from every quarter, concentrate upon christianity; if 
he would behold, not only that it is capable of conclusive 
proof, but how variously and wonderfully its Divine Author 
has encompassed it with proofs of every kind, drawn from 
innumerable sources, and prepared, at all points, for every 
objection, he may lay himself out for a work of extensive 
research, as well as of rich gratification and improvement. 

The evidences of christianity are classed under two gene- 
ral denominations: external or historical, and internal evt- 
dence. Under the latter, are included whatever proofs of 
divine original may be drawn from the doctrines of the gos- 
pel; its incomparable system of morality; the adaptation of 
the religion of Christ to the condition and wants of mankind ; 


LECTURE II. 43 


the holy and elevated character: of its Founder ; together 
with all those incidental, but striking and various marks of 
uprightness, accuracy, and benevolence, which appear in the 
spirit and manner of the New Testament writers, or which 
are seen by a comparison of their several books one with 
another. Such are the principal heads of internal evidence. 
Under the name of external or historical evidence, we find 
whatever exhibits the need of a revelation, as apparent in 
the state of human opinion and practice among the most 
enlightened nations at the commencement of the gospel; the 
argument establishing the authenticity of the scriptures, and 
the credibility of the history contained therein; the proofs 
arising from miracles; from fulfilled prophecy; from the 
propagation of christianity, and from the social and personal 
benefits which have always accompanied its promotion, 
according to the degree in which its native character and 
influence have had room to appear. Such are the principal 
heads of external evidence. 

The present course of lectures, for want of time to carry 
it further, will be confined to the department last described ; 
which is chosen in preference to the other, not because it is 
more important or conclusive, but as more capable of having 
justice done it, in a series of discussions such as that to which 
the circumstances of these lectures restrict us. 

Should we embrace in our view of this grand division of 
_ evidence whatever belongs to it, your attention would first 
be called to the indispensable necessity of a divine revela- 
tion, as the history of the ancient world displays it, and as it 
is still exhibited in the dark places of the earth. This, how- 
ever, we have not room to include in our course. Though 
extremely impressive, and worthy of investigation, it is not 
an essential argument. The straight forward method of phi- 
losophical inquiry directs its attention to the testimony sim- 
ply that an event did occur, and will not suspend assent till 
the need of such an event shall have been fully explained. 


AA LECTURE It. 


If convincing evidence be ‘adduced to the matter of fact that 
a revelation has been given; we may be reasonably content, 
while our limits forbid the proof that it was needed. Who- 
ever should desire to read on this head will find it well dis- 
cussed in the first volume of Wéilson’s Lectures on the Evi- 
dences, &c., or in the admirable letters on the same subject, 
by Olinthus Gregory, L. L. D., Professor of Mathematics 
in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, one of the 
most scientific and pious laymen of the age; or, more at 
large, in the learned volume of Leland, on the Advantages 
and Necessity of a Divine Revelation. 

Let us begin with the authenticity of the New Testament. 
We possess a venerable volume, under this title, consisting 
of twenty-seven independent books or writings, reputed to 
have been composed by eight different authors. It professes 
to contain, and is continually appealed to as containing, not 
only an accurate account of the history and doctrine of Jesus 
Christ, but an account written in the first age of christianity, 
by its earliest disciples and advocates, who were contempo- 
raneous with its author, and were, most of them, eyewit- 
nesses of the events related. Now, before we can be rea- 
sonably warranted in placing implicit reliance in the New 
Testament, as the book of the facts and doctrines of the gos- 
pel, two important questions must be determined. First: is 
ihere satisfactory evidence that the several writings, of 
which it is composed, were written by the men to whom they 
are ascribed? ‘This involves the AUTHENTICITY OF THE 
New Testament. Secondly: is the New Testament de- 
serving of implicit reliance as to matters of historical detail, 
so that we may receive any narrative, as unquestionably 
true, because contained therein? 'This refers to the crept- 
BILITY OF THE New 'T'esTaMENT. 

Thus you perceive, that whether a volume be authentic, 
and whether credible, are two widely separate questions, 
neither, necessarily implying the other, however the evidence 


LECTURE II. 45 


of one may bear upon the proof of the other. Writings 
may be authentic, composed by the men whose names they 
bear, and yet not credible. They may be credzble, because 
correct in their statements, and yet not authentic. ‘The 
question of authenticity refers to the author; that of credi- 
bility to the narrative. “'The Pilgrim’s Progress” is authen- 
tic, because it was actually composed by John Bunyan, to 
whom it is ascribed; but as a narrative, it is not credible, 
being an allegory throughout. The book entitled “Travels 
of Anacharsis the Younger,” is credible, so far as it professes 
to exhibit a view of the antiquities, manners, customs, reli- 
gious ceremonies, &c., of ancient Greece ; but it 1s not authen- 
tic, having been written in the eighteenth century by Barthe- 
lemy, and fictitiously ascribed to the Scythian philosopher. 
“ Marshall’s Life of Washington” is both authentic and 
credible, being a true history, and worthily honoured with 
the name of that eminent and excellent man, from whose 
pen it professes to have come. That the New Testament is 
also authentic and credible, we undertake to show. We 
exclude the more ancient portion of the sacred volume, not 
- because of any deficiency in its evidence, but for the sake 
of unity and clearness in our inquiries; and because, when 
the argument for the New Testament is set forth in a 
conclusive form, the authenticity and credibility of the 
other is rendered, as will hereafter appear, a necessary infe- 
rence. "The two questions will be the subjects of different 
lectures. To that of authenticity our attention will, this 
evening, be confined. Let us begin with the following: 

How does it appear that the several writings conyposing 
the volume of the New Testament were written by the men 
to whom they are ascribed—the original disciples of Christ— 
and are consequently authentic 2 

We pursue precisely the same method in determining the 
authorship of the New ‘Testament, as in ascertaining that 
of any other book of a passed age. For example; we 


46 LECTURE IL 


possess a celebrated poem entitled Paradise Lost. It bears 
the name of Milton. How do we know that Milton com- 
posed it? The answer is easy. Our fathers received it, as 
his production, from their fathers; and they, from theirs. 
By such steps, we ascend to the very year in which the book 
was first published, and find it invariably ascribed to Milton. 
Moreover, the history of the age in which he lived, speaks 
of it as unquestionably and notoriously his work. Writers 
of every succeeding age refer to, and quote it as well known 
to be his. The language of the poem bears the characteristic 
marks of Milton’s times. Its spirit, genius, and style, dis- 
play the distinctive features of Milton’s mind and character. 
And, finally, though Milton had many enemies, and lived 
in a time of great divisions, and this poem redounded greatly 
to his praise, and many must have been disposed, had they 
been able, to discover some false pretensions in his claim to 
its authorship; no other person in that age was ever men- 
tioned as disputing his title, but all united in acknowledging 
him as the writer of Paradise Lost. On this evidence, 
although the poem professes to have been written as far back 
as the year 1674, we are so perfectly certain of its authentici- 
ty, that the man who should dispute it would be justly 
suspected of idiocy or derangement. And had Milton lived 
in the 7th, instead of the 17th century, a similar body of 
evidence would have been equally satisfactory. If, instead 
of the 7th century, he had lived in the first of the Christian 
era, similar evidence, reaching up to his time, would still 
prove, beyond a question, that he wrote Paradise Lost. 
Thus it is evident that time has no effect to impair the force 
of such proof. Whether a book be ascribed to the Christian 
era or to five centuries before or after ; the evidence, being 
the same, is equally satisfactory. It as well convinces us 
that the history ascribed to Herodotus, in the 5th century, 
before Christ, was written by that historian, as that the 
Aineid was written by Virgil, a little before the birth of 


LECTURE II. Al 


Christ ; or the “ Faerie Queene” by Spenser, in the 1590th 
year after that event. We are no less satisfied of the authen- 
ticity of’ the orations of Demosthenes, than of Newton’s 
Principia ;—though between the dates of their publication, 
there is an interval of more than two thousand years. So 
little does the age of a book affect the evidence required to 
establish its authenticity. 

Now in ascertaining the authorship of the New Testa- 
ment, we are furnished with evidence precisely similar to 
that which settles the question so conclusively as to either of 
the works above mentioned.* An unbroken chain of testi- 
mony ascends from the present generation to the preceding, 
and thence to the next beyond, and thence onward again, till 
it reaches the very age of the apostles, exhibiting an uninter- 
rupted series of acknowledgments of the New Testament, 
as having been written indeed by those primitive disciples to 
whom its several parts are ascribed. Besides this, historians 
and other writers of the age ascribed to this volume, as well 
Heathen and Jewish, as Christian, not only recognise its 
existence in their day, but speak of it as notoriously the 
production of its reputed authors. The language is charac- 
teristic of their age, nation and circumstances. The style 
and spirit exhibit the well-known peculiarities of their re- 
spective minds and dispositions. And again, although the 
New ‘Testament at the time of its first appearance, either in 
parts or collectively, was surrounded with numerous, learned, 
and ingenious, as well as most bitter enemies, both among 
Heathens and Jews; and although there arose at an early 
period, many animated controversies between the real be- 
lievers in gospel truth, on one side, and sundry heretical 


— 


* “We know,” says St. Augustine, “the writings of the Apostles, as we 
know the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Varro, and others; and as we 
know the writings of divers ecclesiastical authors; for as much as they have 
the testimony of contemporaries, and of those who have lived in succeeding 
ages,” 


48 LECTURE II. 


pretenders to the christian faith, whose cause would often 
have been materially served by a well sustained denial of the 
authenticity of certain of the books of the New Testament ; 
none in the primitive ages, whether heretics or open enemies, 
ever denied that this volume contained the genuine writings 
of the original apostles and disciples of Christ. On the 
contrary, all received, argued, and acted upon it as unques- 
tionably authentic. Thus we have the same evidence that 
the books of the New Testament were written by those 
whose names they bear, as that Paradise Lost was written 
by the man whose name it bears. The force of this evidence 
is In no wise diminished by the consideration that the apos- 
tles lived in the first, and Milton in the seventeenth century. 

Thus have you received a general outline of the argu- 
ment. We proceed to a more particular view. 

I. The books of the New Testament are quoted or alluded 
to by a series of writers who may be followed up in unbroken 
succession from the present age to that of the apostles. In 
proof of this, it is unnecessary for the satisfaction of any 
person of ordinary information to trace the line of testimony 
from the present time, or from any point of departure lower 
down than the fourth century. Whoever has the least 
acquaintance with the history of the civilized world, as far 
upward as the fourth century, must know that the acknow- 
ledzment of the New Testament, as composed of authentic 
writings, is interwoven with all the literature, science, and 
political, as well as religious institutions, of every subsequent 
age. We begin, therefore, the chain of testimony at the 
fourth century. ! 

It is a veryimpressive evidence of the high estimate in which 
the New 'Testament was universally held at this period, that 
beside innumerable quotations in various writings, no less 
than ten distinct and formal catalogues of its several books, 
were composed at various times, during the fourth century, 
by different hands; and two of them by large and solemn 


LECTURE II. 49 


councils of the heads of the christian church. All of these 
are still extant; and all agree, in every particular, important 
to the present argument, with the list of the New Testament 
writings as at present received. In the year 397, a national 
x provincial council assembled at Carthage, consisting of 
forty-four bishops—Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was a mem- 
ber. The 47th canon of that council is thus written: “ It 
is ordained that nothing beside the canonical scriptures be 
read in the church under the name of divine scriptures ; and 
the canonical scriptures are these,” &c. In the enumeration, 
we find precisely our New Testament books, and no more.* 

About the same time Augustine wrote a book entitled “ Of 
the Christian Doctrine,” in which is furnished a catalogue of 
what he considered the authentic writings of the evangelists | 
and apostles, agreeing entirely with ours. “ In these books 
(saith he) they who fear G'od, seek his will.” 

A short time before this, Rufinus, a presbyter of Aquileia, 
published an “ E'xplication of the Apostles’ Creed,’ in which 
he includes a catalogue of the scriptures. It commences 
thus: “It will not be improper to enumerate here, the books 
of the New and Old Testament, which we find, by the monu- 
ments of the fathers, to have been delivered to the churches, 
as inspired by the Holy Spirit.” This list differs in nothing 
from ours.t 

Jerome, a contemporaneous writer, universally allowed to 
have been the most learned of the Latin fathers, in a letter 
concerning the study of the scriptures, enumerates the books 
of the New Testament in precise correspondence with our 
volume. With regard to the Epistle to the Hebrews, he 
states that by some it was not considered as the work of 
Paul; though it is evident, from other places of his writings, 
that he was satisfied of its authenticity, and numbered it 
among the canonical scriptures.§ 


SS 


* Lardner’s Credibility of the Gosp. Hist. ii. 574. 
t Lardner, ii. 578. t Ib. ii. 573. § Ib. ii. 548. 
A* 


50 LECTURE II. 


In the year 380, wrote Philastrius, bishop of Brescia. In 
a book “ Concerning Heresies,” he gives a catalogue agree- 
ing entirely with ours, except that it omits the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, and the Book of Revelation. But it does not fol- 
low that these were not considered canonical. The olyect of 
his catalogue is to enumerate the books appointed to be read 
in the churches. The Epistle to the Hebrews, he says, was 
read in the churches “ sometimes.” “ Some pretend (he 
writes) that additions have been made to it by some lietero- 
dox persons, and that for that reason it ought not to be read 
in the churches, though it is read by some.” Philastrius 
himself received it, and frequently quoted it as the work of 
St. Paul, and reckoned it a heresy to reject it. He received 
also the book of Revelation, mentioning its rejection by 
some among the heresies of the age. “There are some 
(he writes) who dare to say that the Revelation is not a 
writing of John the apostle and evangelist.”* 

About the year 370, flourished Gregory Nazianzen, bishop 
of Constantinople, who in-a work “ On the True and 
Genuine Scriptures,’ enumerates all the present books ot 
the New Testament, except that of Revelation. This how- 
ever he has quoted in his other works.t 

At the same time, wrote Epiphanius, bishop of: Constantia, 
in Cyprus; “a man of five languages.” He wrote against 
heresies, and gave a list of the New Testament books which 
agrees exactly with ours.t 

About the year 350, another catalogue was published by 
the Council of Laodicea, differing in nothing from ours but 
in the omission of Revelation. 'The decrees of this council 
were, m a short time, received into the canons of the univer- 
sal church ; so that as early as about the middle of the Ath 
century, we find a universal agreement, in all parts of the 
world in which christianity existed, as to the constituent 


Se |g 
* Lardner, ii. 522. t Ib. 470, 71. t Ib. 416. 


LECTURE II. 5t 


parts of the New Testament, with the single exception of 
the book of Revelation. That this was also generally 
received, and why any doubted its authenticity, will appear 
in our subsequent progress.* 

Athanasius and Cyril, the latter bishop of Jerusalem, a 
little earlier in the century, have furnished catalogues—that 
of the former agreeing entirely with ours—that of the latter 
in every thing but the omission of the Revelation of St. 
John. 

The last catalogue to be mentioned in the 4th century, is 
that of Kusebius, bishop of Caesarea, who flourished about 
the year 315. “ A man (says Jerome) most studious in the 
divine scriptures, and very diligent in making a large collec- 
tion of ecclesiastical writers.” In his Ecclesiastical History, 
he mentions, as belonging to the canon of scripture, all our 
present books. While he speaks of the Epistle of James, 
the second of Peter, the third of John. and the book of Re- 
velation, as questioned by some, he states that they were 
_ generally received, and declares his own conviction that they 
ought not to be doubted.t 

The above testimonies, though capable of great multipli- 
cation, are amply sufficient to exhibit the universal confi- 
dence of Christians, of the fourth century, in the authen- 
ticity of the New Testament. Let us proceed to the third. 
In this, among other important names, we find that of the 
celebrated Origen, who flourished about the year 230, having 
been born A. D. 184. Jerome speaks of him, as the greatest 
doctor of the churches, since the apostles—that he had the 
_ Scriptures by heart, and laboured day and night in studying 
and explaining them.{ Great numbers of all descriptions of 
men attended his lectures. Heathen philosophers dedicated 
their writings to him, and submitted them to his revisal. He 


_—_eooo 


* Lardner; ii. 414. Alexander on the Canon, p. 150. 
t Ih, 11, 368, &e. t Ib. i. 527, 


52 LECTURE II. 


wrote a three-fold exposition of the books of scripture, on 
which he bestowed all his learning. He lived within a hun- 
dred years of the death of St. John, and was therefore so 
near the time of the publication of the books of the New 
Testament, that he could hardly avoid obtaining the most 
accurate knowledge of their origin and authors. His enu- 
meration of these writings contains no other books than 
those of our sacred volume, and includes all that we receive, 
except the Epistles of James and Jude, which could not have 
been omitted by design, as in other places he expressly 
acknowledges them as part of the sacred canon. 

Beside Origen, we have in the third century, Victorinus, a 
bishop in Germany; Cyprian, bishop of Carthage; Gregory, 
of Neo-Cesarea, and Dionysius, of Alexandria, in whose 
writings are found most copious quotations from almost 
every book of the New Testament. | 

We proceed to the second century. Here we meet with 
Tertullian, a native of Carthage, born about the year 150, 
within fifty years of the last of the apostles, and renowned 
in his day as a learned, vigorous, and voluminous writer in 
defence of christianity. His works abound in quotations of 
the most direct kind, and with long extracts from all the 
books of the New Testament, except four of the minor’ 
Epistles, which, as he nowhere professes to give a formal 
catalogue, he may easily be supposed to have passed un. 
quoted, without entertaining any opinion unfavourable tc 
their authenticity. 'Tertullian’s quotations occupy nearly 
thirty folio pages. “'There are more and larger quotations 
of the small volume of the New Testament in ¢his one 
christian author, than of all the works of Cicero—in the 
writers of all characters for several ages.”* 

The same is true with regard to Irenzeus and Clement, of 
Alexandria, both writers of the second century. In what 


* Lardner, i. 435. 


LECTURE II. 53 


spirit these early Christians regarded the authority of the 
New Testament books, may be judged from the manner of 
their quotations. Ireneus writes: “As the blessed Paul 
says, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, v. 30: ‘ For we are 
members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.’” And 
so Clement, “ The blessed Paul, in the first Epistle to the 
Corinthians : ‘ Brethren, be not children in understand- 
ing,” &c. 

It deserves to be specially noted that, in this early age, the 
book of Revelation is expressly ascribed to St. John. The 
testimony of Irenzeus to this effect is so full and strong, that 
it may justly be considered as putting its authenticity ae 8 
beyond reasonable dispute.* 

There is abundant evidence that, in the second century, 
the books of the New Testament were open to all, and well 
known in the world. In Tertullian’s Apology, addressed to 
the Roman presidents, he challenges an inspection of the 
scriptures. “T.ook into the words of God, our scriptures, 
which we ourselves do not conceal, and many accidents 
bring into the way of those who are not of our religion.” 
In this appeal, he calls the attention of the heathen rulers 
to the Epistles and Gospels, as constituting, “the words of 
God, our scriptures.”+ 

There is good reason to believe that, in the time of Ter- 
tullian, the very autographs, or original letters of the apos- 
tles, were in the possession of those churches to which they 
had been specially directed. “ If (says this ancient writer) 
you be willing to exercise your curiosity profitably in the 
business of your salvation, visit the apostolical churches, in 
which the very chairs of the apostles still preside ; in which 
their very authentic letters are recited, sounding forth the 
voice, and representing the countenance, of each one of 
them. Is Achaia near you? You have Corinth. If you 


eee, 


* Lardner, i. 372. t Ib. 1,434, 


54 LECTURE II. 


are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, you have 
hessalonica,” &c.* If Tertullian did not mean that the 
original manuscripts, but only authentic copies of the Epis- 
tles to the Corinthians, Philippians, &c., were to be seen by 
application to those churches, why send inquirers thither ? 
Could an authentic copy of the Epistle to the Philippians 
be seen nowhere but at Philippi; or of that to the Corin- 
thians, nowhere but at Corinth ?+ 

The quotations from the New Testament, in the writings 
of the second century, are so numerous that were the sacred 
volume lost, a large part of it might be collected from them 
alone. Passing by the testimonies of Melito, bishop of 
Sardis, who wrote a commentary on the book of Revelation, 
and of Hegesippus, converted from Judaism, and of 'Tatian, 
who composed a harmony of the gospels, all born about the 
time of the death of St. John, we come to Justin Martyr, 
born about ten years prior to that event. Before his conver- 
sion from heathenism, he studied philosophy in the schools 
of the Stoics, Peripatetics, Pythagoreans, and Platonics. 
After becoming a Christian, he occupied a high stand in 
learned writing and holy living. His remaining works con- 
fain numerous quotations from, as well as allusions to, the 
four Gospels, which he uniformly represents as containing 
“the genuine and authentic accounts of Jesus Christ and of 
his doctrine.” 'The same is true in relation to the Acts of 
the Apostles, and the greater part of the Hpistles. The 
book of Revelation is expressly said by Justin to have been 
written by “John, one of the apostles of Christ.” Having 
lived before the death of that apostle, he had the best opportu- 
nity of knowing, 

We finish the second century with Papias, bishop of 
Hierapolis in Asia, whom Irenzeus speaks of as a hearer of 
John, and a disciple of Polycarp, a pupil of John the apostle.t 


* Lardner, i, 424, + Alexander on the Canon, p. 143. + Lardner, i. 336. 


LECTURE II. 55 


How he obtained his information, will appear from the only 
fragment of his writings remaining. It is found in Eusebius. 
“If at any time, I met with one who had conversed with 
the elders, I inquired after the Sayings of the elders (presby- 
ters): what Andrew or what Peter said; or what Philip, 
Thomas, or James, had said; what John or Matthew, or 
what any other of the disciples of the Lord, were wont to 
say.”* 'Thus we have a witness who lived near enough to 
the beginning, to inquire of those who had conversed with 
the apostles, if not to listen to St. John himself. ‘Too little 
remains of his writings to furnish many testimonies, especially 
as he had it not in view to confirm the authenticity of any 
part of scripture ; but still he gives a very valuable testimony 
to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and the first Epistles 
of Peter and John. He alludes to the Acts and the book 
of Revelation. . 

Thus we have ascended to the apostolic age. But we 
may reach still higher. We have in our possession the well 
authenticated writings of five individuals and fathers in the 
primitive church, who, because they were contemporary 
with the apostles, are called apostolical fathers. Three of 
them, Barnabas, Clement, and Hermas, are mentioned by 
name in the New Testament ;t the fourth, Polycarp, was 
an inmediate disciple of St. John ; the fifth, Ignatius, enjoyed 
the privilege of frequent intercourse with the apostles. 
There is scarcely a book of the New Testament, which one 
or another of these writers has not either quoted or alluded 
fo. ‘Though what is extant of their works is very little, it 
contains more than two hundred and twenty quotations, or 
allusions to the writings of our sacred volume, in which 
they are uniformly treated with the reverence belonging to 
inspired books, calling them “ the Sacred Scriptures ;” “the 


A ee CET ETT 


* Lardner, i. 337. 
+ Acts xiii. 2,3; 46,47. 1. Cor. ix.4—7. Phil. iv.3. Rom, xvi. 14, 


DO. LECTURE II. 


Oracles of the Lord.” Their testimony is not universal, 
inasmuch as it is incidental. 'They had no design of enu- 
merating for posterity, or their contemporaries, the books of 
scripture. "There was no controversy on that subject in their 
age. It would have seemed a needless waste of words, had 
they attempted to decide a question which no one asked. It 
is very natural, therefore considering, the brevity of their 
remaining works, and the incidental character of their quo- 
tations, that some of the shorter writings of the New 'Testa- 
ment should not be alluded to; while the fact that, by one 
or another, almost every book is quoted or alluded to, and 
that the whole number of quotations or allusions is upwards 
of two hundred and twenty, accompanied with every mark 
of reverence and submission, is a most impressive proof that 
the authenticity and inspired authority of the New 'Testa- 
ment books were then notorious and unquestioned among 
Christians. | 

Thus we have ascended the line of testimony into the 
presence of the apostles. Our evidence has been collected 
from only a few out of the many witnesses that might have 
been cited. It has been derived from writers of different 
times, and of countries widely separated—from philosophers, 
rhetoricians, and divines, all men of acuteness and learning 
in their days, all concurring in their testimony that the 
books of the New Testament were equally known in distant 
regions, and received as authentic by men and churches that 
had no intercourse with one another. The argument is now, 
therefore, reduced to this. 'The apostles and disciples of Christ 
are known to have left some writings. That those writings 
have been lost, none can give a reason for believing. It is 
not pretended that any other volume than that of the New 
Testament contains them. The books contained in this 
volume, were considered to be the writings of the apostles, 
by the whole christian church, as far back as those who 
were their contemporaries and companions, being continu- 


LECTURE II. 57 


ally quoted and alluded to as such. It was impossible that 
such witnesses should be deceived. Contemporaries and 
companions must have known whether they quoted the 
genuine works of the apostles, or only forgeries pretending 
to their names. Our evidence, therefore, is complete. What 
I have presented, exceeds, above measure, the evidence for 
the authenticity of any other ancient book. Should the 
fiftieth part of it be demanded for any Roman or Grecian 
production, its character must be condemned as unworthy of 
confidence. 

Before relinquishing this department of evidence, there 
are certain very important particulars which, though em- 
braced in what has been already advanced, require a more 
special notice. 

Ist. It is worthy of distinct remark, that when the books 
of the New Testament are quoted or alluded to by those 
whose testimony has been adduced, they are treated with 
supreme regard, as possessing an authority belonging to 
no other books, and as conclusive in questions of religion. 
For example; Irenzeus, born about A. D. 97, calls them 
“ divine oracles ;” “ scriptures of the Lord.” He says that 
the Gospel was “committed to writing, by the will of God, 
that it might be, for time to come, the foundation and pillar 
of our faith.”* “He fled to the Gospels, which he believed 
no less than if Christ had been speaking to him; and to the 
writings of the apostles, whom he esteemed as the presby- 
tery of the whole christian church.” Origen, born about 
A. I). 184, says, “Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of 
God, in a sense not to be explained and made known to 
men, by any but by that scripture alone which is inspired by 
the Holy Ghost ; that is, the evangelic and apostolic scrip- 
ture, as also that of the law and the prophets.”t Cyprian 
bishop of Carthage, born about the end of the second cen. 


-_—_—_———— 


* Lardner, i. 372, t Ib, i, 545, 


coe a 


58 LECTURE II. 


tury, earnestly exhorts “all in general, but especially christian 
ministers, in all doubtful matters, to have recourse to the 
Gospels and the Epistles of the apostles, as to the fountain 
where may be found the true original doctrine of Christ.” 
“The precepts of the Gospel (he says) are to be considered 
as the lessons of God to us; as the foundations of our hope, 
and the supports of our faith.”* 

2d. The books of the New Testament were united at a 
very early period in a distinct volume. Not to mention, in 
evidence of this, that in all the earliest writers, the Gospels 
and Hpistles are spoken of as constituting a notorious col- 
lection of sacred authorities, divided into those two parts ; 
we have Tertullian, born only fifty years after the death of 
St. John, calling the collection of the Gospels the “ evange- 
lical instrument ;’ the whole volume, the “ New Testa- 
ment ;” and the two parts, the “ Gospels and apostles.” 

3d. The books of the New Testament were, at a very 
early period, publicly read and expounded in the congrega- 
tions of Christians. Chrysostom, born about A. D. 347, 
testifies that “the Gospels, when written, were not hid ina 
corner, or buried in obscurity, but made known to all the 
world, before enemies as well as others, even as they are 
now.” Irenus, about two hundred years earlier, says that, 
in his time, “ all the scriptures, both prophecies and Gospels, 
are open and clear, and may be heard of all.”+ Still earlier, 
we find Justin Martyr giving the emperor an account of the 
christian worship, in which it is written: “’The memoirs of 
the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, accord- 
ing as the time allows; and when the reader has ended, the 
president makes a discourse, exhorting to the imitation of so 
excellent things.”} ‘The custom here mentioned, is evidently 
spoken of as notorious and universal. This was about the 
year 140. But a practice thus general and familiar could 


* Lardner, ii. 27, and 592, 3. t Ib. i. 372. t Ib. i. 345, 


LECTURE II. 59 


hardly have grown up in less than forty years before the 
writing of this last witness. Thus we reach the life of St. 
John, and may, therefore, consider it as satisfactorily proved 
that, at a period as early as the last years of St. John, the 
scriptures of the New Testament were publicly read and 
expounded in the churches of Christians. Such is the 
natural inference, from many passages in the works of 
Augustine, of the fourth century. For example, “ The 
canonical books of scripture being read every where, the 
miracles therein recorded, are well known to all people.” 
“The Epistles of Peter and Paul are daily recited to the 
peopie.” And to what people? And to how many people? 
Listen to the Psalm: “ Their sound hath gone out into all 
the earth.” Again: “'The genuineness and integrity of the 
same scriptures may be relied on, which have been spread 
all over the world, and which from the time of their publi- 
cation were in the highest esteem, and have been carefully 
kept in the churches.* : 

Ath. During the primitive ages of christianity, convmen- 
taries were written upon the books of the New Testament ; 
harmonies of them were formed, copies diligently com- 
pared, and translations made into different languages. In 
proof of these assertions, it is needless, after the citations 
already made, to call up testimony. It may be found abun- 
dantly in Paley’s Evidences;t where it is well said, that “no 
greater proof can be given of the esteem in which these an- 
cient books were holden by the ancient Christians, or of the 
sense then entertained of their value and importance, than 
the industry bestowed upon them. Moreover, it shows that 
they were then considered as ancient books. Men do not 
write comments upon publications of their own times; 
therefore the testimonies cited under this head, afford an 
evidence which carries up the evangelic writings much be- 
RE 10> ee PUR See SEINE IN Se CS AY 3 ap 

~ *Lardner, ii. 593, 4. tP. lie. ix. S vi. 


60 LECTURE II. 


yond the age of the testimonies themselves, and to that of 
their reputed authors.” 'There is but a single example of a 
christian writer during the three first centuries, composing 
comments upon any other books than those in the New 'Tes- 
ment. Clement, of Alexandria, is mentioned by Eusebius as 
having written short notes upon an apocryphal book, called 
the Revelation of Peter; but that he did not consider it 
as having authority, may be inferred from the fact men- 
tioned by Eusebius, that in his other works it was nowhere 
quoted.* | 

5th. From the view we have taken of primitive testimony, 
it appears that the agreement of the ancient church as to 
what were the authentic books of the New Testament, is 
complete. Of thirteen catalogues, the earliest of which was 
furnished by Origen, living within a hundred years of St. 
John ; all of which were drawn up, either by solemn coun- 
cils, or distinguished heads of the church residing in various 
and widely remote parts of the world; of these thirteen, 
seven, including the earliest, agree exactly with our New 
Testament list; three others differ only in the omission of 
the book of Revelation, for which they had a special reason 
not implicating its authenticity ; and in two of the remain- 
ing, the books omitted and spoken of as doubtful, in the esti- 
mation of some, were acknowledged and quoted as authentic 
by the framers of the catalogues. 'The fathers, in all their 
writings and of all ages and countries, appeal to the same 
scriptures as infallible authority. The consent of the ancient 
church was therefore universal. So far as the argument for 
the divine revelation of the Gospel is connected with the 
authenticity of any of the books it was without exception. 
The books omitted in some. writers and catalogues, have no 
essential reference to the great question whether the Gospel 
of Christ is of divine revelation. 


* Lardner, i. 410. 


LECTURE IT. 61 


6th. The agreement among the various sects of heretics 
in the earliest centuries, is as entire as that of the orthodox 
fathers. 'The authenticity of the books of the New Testa- 
ment was acknowledged even by those to whose sectarian 
interest their authority was extremely detrimental. Instead 
of venturing to dispute their having been written by their 
reputed authors, they sought refuge in arbitrary interpreta- 
tions of such passages as opposed their favourite views. 
Some among the Gnostics, for example, unable to escape the 
apostolic character of the sacred books, maintained the ne- 
cessity of giving an allegorical turn to their declarations. 
And when, in the course of time, heretics did undertake to 
question the authenticity of some portions of the New Tes- 
tament, their accusation was not based upon any historical 
or testimonial objections, but confined to some trifling and 
pretended internal causes of exception, which only their 
own convenience could discover. Some of these later here- 
tics, being opposed to the doctrine of the influences of the 
Holy Spirit, denied the gospel of St. John, because it con- 
tains the promise of that divine Teacher and Comforter. 
But with regard to those of an earlier date, Ireneus of the 
second century, writes, “So great is the certainty in regard 
to our Gospels, that even the heretics themselves bear testi- 
mony in their favour; and all acknowledging them, each 
endeavours to establish from them his own opinions.”*  Ori- 
gen, on account as well of his candour and acquaintance 
with the heresies of his times as of the early age in which 
he lived, should be considered a competent witness on this 
head. He states that the heretics endeavoured to impose 
upon people by alleging texts of scripture for their particu- 
lar tenets, though they quoted them in a very unfair and 
mutilated manner ; and that they appealed to them because 
they were the only writings whose authority was univer- 


ne een Ae ae a Lee CRED Pere ERNE? UEP Te Re 
* Storr & Flatt’s Bib. Theol. i. 67. 
5 


62 LECTURE II. 


sally allowed.* ‘Testimony more impressive than this, to 
the apostolic authorship of the New Testament books, can- 
not be demanded. 

7th. The several heads of evidence which have now been 
made out in proof of the authenticity of the New Testa 
ment, cannot be pretended to with regard to any of those 
writings which are called Apocryphal Scriptures. 'To some 
who are aware that in the early ages of cliistianity there 
existed a variety of apocryphal gospels and other composi- 
tions, pretending to have been written by the apostles, it may 
be difficult to imagine by what rule the true works of the 
inspired writers were separated, without embarrassment and 
with sufficient confidence, from all mere pretenders to that 
high original. But it greatly enhances one’s sense of the 
-prodigious weight of evidence in support of the true serip- 
tures, to learn how broad and unquestionalle was the dis- 
tinction. 

Among the apocryphal writings, a are two classes. 
One is that of histories which assumed the names of the 
apostles, but were literally forgeries and therefore spurious, 
as well as apocryphal. The other consists of cer lain, writings 
of a christian character, and either entirely 01 in. part ait 
rical, which are not spurious, but called apocryphal because 
their age and authors are unknown, or their authority is of 
no weight. 

Of mis first class, it may be asserted, without any hazard. 
that none are quoted within three hundred years after the 
birth of Christ, by any writer now extant or known; or if 
any are quoted, it is invariably with marks of ceusure and 
rejection.t The only possible exception is the gospel accord- 
ing to the Hebrews, “which (says Lardner) was probably 
either St. Matthew’s gospel in his original Hebrew, with some 
additions; or, as I rather think, a Hebrew translation of St. 


* Lardner, iv, 521, 2, t 6 Paley’s Evidences. 


¢ 


LECTURE II. 63 


Matthew’s Greek original, with the additions above mention- 
el.” But this is quoted nowhere, without marks of discredit, 
except im one lace in the works of Clement of Alexandria. 

Of the second class, none but a book called the Preaching 
of Peter, and another entitled the Revelation of Peter, are 
quoted, without positive condemnation, by any writer of the 
three first centuries. These are spoken of only by the same 
Clement of Alexandria. Compare with these facts, the 
immense mass aud variety of concurrent testimonies to the 
books of the New Testament in the writers of the three first . 
centuries ; testimonies from all countries and all classes— 
orthodox or heretics; remember for example that you may 
find in the extant works of Tertullian, or of Irenzus, or of 
Clement of Alexandria, more and larger quotations of the 
small volume of the New Testament, than you can find in 
writers of all characters, for several ages, of the works of 
Cicero, though voluminous and always so universally popu- 
lar; and it en be evident that the apocryphal writings 
could have presented no difficulties in ascertaining the 
authentic books of the apostles. None of them were read 
as having apostolic authority in the churches of Christians ; 
nor admitted into their sacred volume ; nor included in their 
catalogues ; noi noticed as authentic by the adversaries of 
christianity ; ior appealed to by all parties calling them- 
selves Christians, as authority in their controversies ; nor 
treated with sufficient respect to be made the subjects of 
commentaries, collections or translations, unless the brief 
notes on the Revelation of Peter, by Clement of Alexandria, 
should meiit exception. So wide was the contrast between 
the true and the false; so easily were the true scriptures dis- 
tinguished from all unauthorized pretenders to that honoura- 
ble name. 

But this is capable of being exhibited still more impres- 
sively. We have stated several important evidences .of 
authenticwy, all of which are found in the New 'Testament; 


64 LECTURE II. 


and none in any of the apocryphal writings. We will now 
exhibit certain evidences of spuriousness, all of which are 
found in the apocryphal writings, and none in those of the 
New Testament. The reasons which render the authen- 
ticity of a work suspicious, are thus enumerated in the 
learned Introduction to the New Testament by Michaelis : 
1. When doubts have been entertained, from its first ap- 
pearance, whether it was the work of its reputed author. 
2. When his immediate friends who were able to judge, 
have denied it to be his. 3. When a long series of years 
has elapsed after his death, in which the book was unknown, 
and in which it must have been mentioned or quoted, had it 
been in existence. 4. When the style is different from that 
of his other writings; or in case no others remain, different 
from what might be reasonably expected. 5. When events 
are recorded which happened later than the time of the pre- 
tended author. 6. When opinions are advanced contradic- 
tory to those which he is known to have maintained in other 
writings.* Now it may be affirmed, without fear of contra- 
diction, that the apocryphal books exhibit all these evidences 
of spuriousness; none of them being exempt from nearly 
the whole list, and few of them deficient in any particular. 
While, with equal confidence, it is asserted that the books of 
the New Testament exhibit none of them. In no book of 
that holy volume, are opinions professed that are contradic- 
tory to any which the reputed author is known elsewhere to 
have maintained; nor are facts recorded which happened 
later than the age in which he lived; nor is the style differ- 
ent from that of his other writings, or from what might rea- 
sonably have been expected from his pen. No book of the 
New ‘Testament was unknown during a long series of years 
subsequent to the death of the individual to whom it is 
ascribed ; none can be shown to have been denied by the 


* Michaelis’ Int., i. p. 25, 


LECTURE II. 65 


hear friends of the reputed author as his production ; no 
doubts can be proved to have been entertained of the au- 
thenticity of any part of the New Testament at the time of 
its first publication. ) 

That apocryphal writings existed in the first centuries, is 

a fact which so far from embarrassing the evidence for the 
authenticity of the New Testament books, and the truth of 
the gospel history, very materially confirms it. Had it not 
been notorious that the apostles did write Gospels and Epis- 
tles, it is not likely that so many would have attempted to 
pass otf spurious Gospels, &c., in their names. Had it not 
been that the fame of Christ and his apostles was very great 
in all lands, from the beginning, it is not probable that all 
these apocryphal authors would have thought of writing 
about them, or in their names; much less that they would 
have expected a market for their works. Had it not been 
notorious and universally allowed that Christ and his a.pos- 
tles wrought miracles, and did many wonderful works, it is 
‘hot }robable that all these writers would have taken it for 
granted, and sought to build up their particular opinions 
upon the assumption. “ They all suppose the dignity of 
our [ord’s person, and a power of working miracles, toge- 
ther witha high degree of authority, as having been con- 
veyidl by him to his apostles.”* 

‘hat apocryphal books should have been published in 
the name of the apostles, is precisely what was to be ex- 
pected fim the wide circulation, great popularity, and emi- 
nett reverence, which their authentic writings had obtained. 
Curreut notes soon awaken a disposition to counterfeit them. 
Popular medicines soon bring into the market apocryphal 
inventions wearing their names. The effort to pass off the 
latter is the best proof of the estimation of the former. 

‘The New Testament writers have been treated, in this 


SR OSS Seen Geeisueteeeiee ac ae ne Se ae 


* Lardner, iii. 131, 


66 LECTURE II. 


respect, precisely like others. So writes Augustine: “ No 
writings ever had a better testimony afforded them than 
those of the apostles and evangelists; nor does it weaken 
the credit and authority of books received by the church 
from the beginning, that some other writings have been 
without ground, and falsely, ascribed to the apostles ; for 
the like has happened, for instance, to Hippocrates; but 
yet his genuine works have been distinguished from 
others, which have been published under his name.”* 
Such, also, has been the case with many others. Several 
spurious orations were published under the names of Lysias 
and Demosthenes. "Works were ascribed to Plautus, and 
Virgil, and Horace, which had no title to their names. But 
it was no difficult matter for the Greek and Roman critics to 
separate the genuine from the apocryphal works of those 
authors. Thus it was also with the early Christians. They 
proved all things, and held fast that only which was good. 
“We receive Peter and the other apostles, as Christ (said 
Serapion, bishop of Antioch); but as skilful men, we reject 
those writings which are falsely ascribed to them.” 

Here we might safely leave the question of authenticity ; 
for, if the evidence adduced does not prove the New 'Testa 
ment books to have proceeded from the apostles, no book of 
a passed age has any pretension to authenticity ; that Milton 
wrote Paradise Lost must be considered unworthy of credit ; 
that the orations bearing the name of Cicero, were composed 
or delivered by that orator, must be condemned as one of the 
apocryphal inventions of some age of monks and darkness. 
«“ — find more sure marks of authenticity in the New Testa- 
ment (said Sir Isaac Newton), than in any profane history 
whatever.” 

But inasmuch as your minds cannot be furnished with 
too much information on this fundamental subject, I 


* Lardner, iii. 134. 


LECTURE II. 67 


will reserve some important views for a subsequent lec- 
ture. 

There is a lesson for the believer, in what has been exhi- 
bited, of great practical interest. It is manifest, from the 
testimonies adduced, that the scriptures of the New Testa- 
ment were treated, among the primitive Christians, not only 
as true and possessed of inspired authority, in reference to 
all questions of doctrine and obedience ; but as very pre- 
cious, “more to be desired than gold.” They loved them as 
an inestimable treasure ; they kept them, consulted them, 
and exalted them in their hearts, and houses, and assemblies, 
as a companion for every trial; a guide in every difficulty ; 
a gift of God, for the preservation and honour of which they 
were ready to shed their blood. They felt them to be “ pro- 
fitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in 
righteousness.” How does all this rebuke the lukewarm- 
ness with which the scriptures are regarded by too many 
professing Christians of the present day. In primitive times, 
believers would read them, though they paid for the privilege 
with their lives. In these days, multitudes who call them- 
selves believers, can hardly be persuaded to search the scrip- 
tures, though every facility is afforded, and the Bible is in 
honour. What a tremendous account must he give to God, 
who neglects His word! Let us imitate not only the affec- 
tionate devotion with which the primitive Christians read 
the Bible, but also the diligent zeal with which they sur- 
mounted innumerable obstacles, in circulating copies of its 
books through the world. We possess facilities for such an 
object which they had not. The press is placed in our hands 
for this very purpose. It is our gift of tongues. Let us 
realize the responsibility we are under, for the improvement 
of so rich a talent; and speed its work, and multiply its 
branches of application, till the sound of the Gospel has gone 
out into all the earth, and the words of Jesus to the ends of 
the world; and there is nothing hid from the light thereof, 


68 LECTURE III. 


LE OTe RE ore 


AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT. 


Our attention was exclusively occupied, during the last 
lecture, in tracing up the line of testimony by which the 
church of Christ, in these days, is certified that her sacred 
books, composing the volume of the New Testament, are 
those very books which were written by the apostles of the 
Lord Jesus. A series of attestations was followed up, by 
which we were conducted into the very age and presence of 
the apostles, and enabled to inquire of those who, having 
been their contemporaries, and in habits of intercourse with 
them, must necessarily have known what books they wrote. 
A mass of evidence was obtained, by which the authenticity 
of the New Testament was placed on the most immoveable 
basis. But, inasmuch as we are now laying the foundation 
of our subsequent and more direct arguments for the truth 
of christianity as a divine revelation, it is of the greatest 
importance that, in respect to this preliminary subject, every 
mind be well assured, and that nothing of importance to the 
impressiveness, as well as sufficiency, of the evidence, be 
omitted. In the present lecture, therefore, we pursue still 
farther the question to which the last was devoted. 

From the whole tenor of the previous lecture, it is evi- 
dent that the canon of the New Testament ; in other words, 
the collection of those books which were considered as the 
inspired and authoritative writings of the apostles and evan- 
gelists, to the exclusion of all others, was not made without 
greai care, and the most deliberate, intelligent investiga 
tion. Such is the witnessing of an eminent writer of the 


LECTURE III. 69 


fourth century. “Our canonical books (says Augustine), 
which are of the highest authority among us, have been set- 
tled with great care: they ought to be few, lest their value 
should be diminished ; and yet they are so many, and writ- 
ten by so many persons, that their agreement, throughout, is 
wonderful.”* The method pursued by the early Christians 
in determining what books had a just claim to the character 
of canonical scriptures, was precisely that by which we have 
been investigating the same subject. It was not enough, for 
the reception of a writing, that it came to them under the 
name of an apostle, and was considered by some as justly 
entitled to that honour. Its descent was carefully traced. 
How was it regarded by the preceding generation, and by 
the generation before that? Was it known by those who 
lived nearest the time and the person associated with its 
claims? Had it been received by the churches; referred to 
and quoted, as possessing canonical authority, by christian wri- 
ters since the period of its general publication? Had it been 
handed down by the general and concurrent tradition of the 
church, written and unwritten, as the work of the writer 
whose name it bears? Such was the mode which, we know 
from the remaining works of Irenzus, Tertullian, Eusebius, 
Cyril, and Augustine, &c., was employed in their days, and 
in all times of the primitive church. “'The books of the 
eanonical scriptures (says Augustine), established in the times 
of the apostles, and confirmed by the testimony of the suc- 
cession of bishops and churches, in all following times, are 
placed in a peculiar degree of authority, to which the judg- 
ment and understanding of all pious men are subject.” 

The numerous catalogues which have descended to us 
from the early centuries, are sufficient evidence of the care 
with which the canon of the New Testament was settled. 
{n primitive times, when, from a variety of causes, spurious 


* subs ii. 596. 


70 LECTURE IIt. 


books abounded, and the distant and scattered churches, 
incapable of much intercourse with those near the centre 
of christian light, were most liable to be deceived, these 
catalogues were of the greatest importance. How nume- 
rous they must have been, may be, in somewise, conceived 
from the fact that, although a very small portion only of 
the works of the first four centuries are extant, there are 
among them no less than thirteen independent catalogues, 
all of them composed by authors scattered over only about 
one hundred and eighty, out of the first four hundred years 
after the birth of Christ. 

The same care is seen in the pains that were taken to 
obtain the most exact information as to the authenticity of the 
books bearing apostolic names; as well as from the decisive 
censure and aversion with which an attempt to pass a spu- 
rious work upon the church, was visited. Pious and learned 
heads of the churches used to journey to Palestine, and reside 
there for a considerable length of time, for the express object 
of obtaining whatever valuable knowledge might be found 
there, as to the New Testament writings. And of the treat- 
ment bestowed upon attempted forgeries, we have an example 
in the case of‘a certain presbyter of Asia, soon after the death 
of St. John, who published a book, which is still extant, un- 
der the title of the Acts of Paul and Thecla. The attempt 
at imposition was charged upon the author, and confessed. 
Whereupon he was degraded from his office, and the whole 
matter was notified to the churches, that they might feel the 
need of the strictest care thereafter.* 

The gradual steps by which the books of the New Testa- 
ment were multiplied to their present number, afforded the 
best opportunity for a careful and accurate determination of 
their authenticity. Had they all appeared at once, claiming, 
in their collective form, to be received by the churches as in- 


* Lardner, i. 435. 


LECTURE II1. 71 


spired scripture ; the attention of Christians being thus divi- 
Jed among twenty-seven independent writings which pro- 
fessed to have been written by eight different authors, the 
diligence of their investigation would have been also divided ; 
its accuracy would have been endangered, and the opportu- 
nity of imposition greatly increased. But such was not the 
case. "The books of the New Testament were published 
singly. They came before the churches, one by one, with 
considerable intervals between them, thus giving time for the 
claims of each to be deliberately and singly examined. 'The 
Epistle to the Romans appeared at the bar of the church in 
the city of Rome, and had its authority as a writing of St. 
Paul determined, without embarrassment from any question 
as to the authenticity of the Epistle to the Ephesians. ‘The 
Ephesians received the Epistle directed to them, and could 
sit in judgment upon its claims, without any necessity of de- 
ciding, at that time, upon the authenticity of the Epistle to the 
Romans, or Corinthians, or Philippians. Thus were there 
several years between the beginning and completion of the 
canon of the New Testament. For a little while, a portion of - 
the church might possess an additional book, which a distant 
region, on account of the difficulty of multiplying and trans- 
mitting copies, would not have received. It may have been 
a period of some years before a church in the distant parts of 
Asia received and was enabled satisfactorily to authenticate 
the Epistle to the Romans. Meanwhile the canon of scrip- 
ture might be composed of more books at Rome than at the 
church supposed. 

How long this state of things continued; or when precisely 
the canon was closed, is a question rather of curiosity than of 
importance ; the authenticity and canonical character of any 
particular book being independent of its determination. We 
know that the principal parts of the New T'estament were 
collected before the death of St. John, or at least not long sub- 
sequent to that event. But what individual, or what assem- 


72 LECTURE III. 


blage of persons, collected them ; where, and precisely when, 
the work was done, we may indulge in plausible conjecture, 
but cannot certainly ascertain. But what connexion have 
such matters with the question of apostolic origin? If the 
Epistle to the Romans, or the gospel of Matthew was written 
by the disciple whose name it bears, it surely matters little 
when it became the companion of other authentic books in 
the formation of a separate volume; or who arranged its 
place in that volume; or when an assemblage of christian 
fathers inserted its name in a catalogue, and published it to 
the churches as a canonical writing. It was canonical as 
soon as it was composed. It was a part of the New 'Testa- 
ment fromthe moment of its birth. Had the books of scrip- 
ture never been collected into a volume, but kept in separation, 
as they were first published, to the present time, although 
their preservation would have been more difficult, their au- 
thority would have been the same, and the canon of the New 
Testament, complete. Had no father of the church, nor any 
ecclesiastical council ever issued a declaration of opinion as 
to what writings should be included in the list of canonical 
scriptures, we should have wanted indeed much valuable 
testimony now possessed from such sources ; but the essential 
claim of each inspired book to a place in the canon would 
have remained unaltered. 'T'o substantiate the title of any 
portion of the New T'estament to so honourable a place, we 
need only the proof that it was written by the apostle or 
evangelist to whom it is ascribed. For this we require the 
testimony of primitive antiquity. So far as the opinion of 
ancient councils or authors is deserving of attention, as a 
matter of testimony, it is of value in the settlement of the 
canon; and in this view, such opinion is unquestionably of 
the highest importance; and what we have already exhi- 
bited of this kind, deserves the greatest consideration. But 
the point to be especially noted is, that the proof ‘of authen- 
ticity in the subject before us, is the proof of canonical autho- 


LECTURE III. 73 


rity ; that the canon began when the first Gospel or Epistle 
was published ; that it increased with every additional pub- 
lication by inspired men, and was complete and closed, the 
moment the last writing of the New Testament was issued 
to the churches; though at the same time but few of them 
may have been acquainted with it; no ecclesiastical assem- 
bly may have sanctioned it, and no union had been made 
with other inspired books, so as to present them to the 
churches as a collection of canonical writings, under the 
general name of the New Testament. 

As to the arrangement of these books in a single volume, 
it must have been a work of time, according to the relative 
situation and intercourse of any particular region of chris- 
tianity. “'Those churches which were situated nearest to 
the place where any particular books were published, would, 
of course, obtain copies much earlier than churches in remote 
parts of the world. For a considerable period the collection 
of these books in each church must have been necessarily 
incomplete, for it would take some time to send to the church 
or people with whom the autographs were deposited, and to 
write off fair copies. This necessary process will also account 
for the fact, that some of the smaller books were not received by 
the churches so early, nor universally, as the larger. 'The soli- 
citude of the churches to possess, immediately, the more exten- 
sive books of the New Testament, would doubtless induce 
them to make a great exertion to acquire copies ; but, proba- 
bly, the smaller would not be so much spoken of, nor would 
there be so strong a desire to obtain them without delay. 
Considering how difficult it is now, with all our improve- 
ments in the typographical art, to multiply copies of the 
scriptures with sufficient rapidity, it is truly wonderful how 
so many churches as were founded during the first century. 
to say nothing of individuals, could all be supplied with 
copies of the New Testament, when there was no speedier 
"nethod of producing them than by writing every letter with 

6 


74 LECTURE III. 


the pen. Even as early as the time when Peter wrote his 
second Hpistle, the writings of Paul were in the hands of 
the churches, and were classed with the other scriptures.* 
And the citation from these books by the earliest christian 
writers, living in different countries, demonstrates that, from 
the time of their publication, they were sought after with 
avidity, and were widely dispersed.” ‘“ How intense the 
interest which the first Christians felt in the writings of the 
apostles can scarcely be conceived by us, who have been 
familiar with these books from our earliest years. How soli- 
citous would they be, for example, who had never seen Paul, 
but had heard of his wonderful conversion and extraordinary 
labours and gifts, to read his writings? And probably they 
who had enjoyed the high privilege of hearing this apostle 
preach would not be less desirous of reading his Epistles ! 
As we know from the nature of the case, as well as from 
testimony, that many uncertain accounts of Christ’s dis- 
courses and miracles had obtained circulation, how greatly 
would the primitive Christians rejoice, to obtain an authentic 
historv from the pen of an apostle, or from one who wrote 
precisely what was dictated by an apostle? We need no 
longer wonder, therefore, that every church should wish to 
possess a collection of the writings of the apostles; and 
knowing them to be the productions of inspired men, they 
would want no further sanction of their authority. All that 
was requisite, was to be certain that the book was indeed 
written by the apostle whose name it bore.”t “Hence the care 
of St. Paul, as he commonly wrote by an amanuensis, to 
have the salutation in his own hand, or to annex his signa- 
ture: as, for example, in the second Epistle to the Thessa- 
lonians : “ The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, 
which is the token in every Epistle: so I write.” Hence, 
also, the care so often manifest in the Hpistles, to designate 


—_—_——-- 


*2 Peter, iii. 14, 15, + Alexander on the Canon, p. 138, &e. 


LECTURE III. 5 


those by name to whom the office of carrying them, whither 
they were addressed, was intrusted. 

From the authorities quoted in the previous lecture, it 
must be full in your recollection that while the agreement 
of the ancient churches may be considered to have been 
complete, so far as is important to the argument for the di- 
vine origin of Uhristianity ; still there was a difference of 
opinion as to the authenticity and canonical authority of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews; of the Epistle of James; the se- 
cond of Peter ; the second and third of John; the Epistle of 
Jude; and the book of Revelation. This diversity was not, 
by any means, so great or important as some suppose. Had 
it not been for the great care and candour of those early 
Christians, from whom we learn the fact, it would have 
seemed of too limited an extent, and too inconsiderable in its 
origin, to merit any more than a very transient notice in their 
writings. But we have no reason to regret the publicity 
they have given it. They have thus put into our hands a 
very strong proof of the discriminating care and jealous vigi- 
lance with which the primitive churches investigated the 
title of any book to admission into the canon of the New 
Testament. ‘That some were doubted, though afterwards 
universally acknowledged, exhibits in a very strong light the 
certain authenticity of all those of which there was never a 
question. 

The canonical authority of the six Epistles above named, 
as well as of the Apocalypse, has no material connexion with 
the argument of the ensuing lectures. The evidence of the 
divine origin and revelation of christianity is entirely inde- 
pendent of the question of their authenticity. Should we 
acknowledge them to be spurious, no point of christian doc- 
trine or duty would be removed; no gospel truth would be 
shaken ; no evidence of divine revelation would be dimin- 
isned. 'T'o vindicate their authenticity cannot, therefore, be 
requirea or a iecturer on the evidences of christianity. it is 


76 LECTURE I11. 


the appropriate office of the biblical critic, and belongs to dis- 
cussions on the canon of scripture, and to the prolegomena 
of a commentary, instead of the course we are now pursuing. 
But lest the mere statement of the fact that doubts were once 
entertained as to the authenticity of these writings, should 
leave on some minds: an impression unfavourable to their 
character, as inspired scriptures, it will be well to bestow a 
moment’s attention to the amount of importance to which 
those doubts are justly entitled. 

With regard to the Epistle to the Hebrews, no question 
was entertained as to its being the work of St. Paul, among 
the churches of the earlier centuries, except those of the 
Latin Christians. The fact that the Arians were the first in 
the Greek churches who are said to have denied that it was 
written by St. Paul, is an important testimony in its favour. 
The objections of the Latins did not pretend to any ecclesi- 
astical tradition, or any authority of earlier churches, in op-_ 
position to its Pauline origin ; but were based entirely on its 
internal character, and especially on the handle which the 
fourth and fifth verses of the sixth chapter seemed to afford 
the sect of the Montanists, in vindication of their prominent 
doctrine, that those guilty of grievous transgressions should 
be irrevocably cut off from the church. Hence it was that 
Jerome and Augustine, though of the Latins, could not adopt 
the opinions held by many of their contemporaries, being 
convinced of their incorrectness, by the testimony of the an- 
cient churches to the authenticity of the Epistle. 

It should be remarked, that all those who questioned the 
canonical authority of this Epistle, treated it with high re- 
spect as a christian and very ancient writing of the apostolic 
age, if not by an apostle’s hand. They ascribed it either to 
Barnabas or Clement. But for this they had no testimony to 
appeal to. On the contrary, the testimony of the earliest 
christian writers is very decidedly for St. Paul. 'The fathers 
of the Greek church unanimously ascribed it to him. Je- 


LECTURE III. (ig 


rome, of the fourth century, testifies that it was received as a 
production of that apostle, not only by the eastern churches, 
but by all the Greek ecclesiastical writers. “1 receive it 
(said he) as genuine—guided by the authority of the ancient 
writers.” Eusebius, the historian of the church of the fourth 
century, quotes it as the work of St. Paul, and says it had, 
not without reason, been reckoned. among the other writings 
of the apostle. 'Theodoret positively asserts that Eusebius 
received this Epistle as St. Paul’s, and that he manifested 
that almost all the ancients were of the same opinion. Au- 
gustine said “he followed the opinion of the churches of the 
east, who received it among the canonical scriptures.” Ori- 
gen, born A. D. 184, expresses his opinion that “it was not 
without cause that the ancients (i. e. the immediate succes- 
sors of the apostles) regarded this as an Epistle of Paul.” 
The internal evidence is decidedly in favour of its having 
been written by that apostle. The salutation from the Jew- 
ish Christians who had been driven out of Italy (Heb. xiii. 
24.), and the mention of 'Timothy as his fellow traveller (xiii. 
23.), are very applicable to Paul. Not only does the general 
scope of this Epistle tend to the same point on which so 
much stress is laid in his other writings, that we are justified 
only by faith in Christ, and that the works and institutions 
of the law are of no avail to our salvation; but there are 
also various propositions found in it which are conspicuous 
in his other works. The same characteristic warmth and 
energy of expression appear in this as in all writings ascribed 
in the New Testament to the pen of St. Paul. Hebraisms 
abound in it as in his other Epistles. It contains particular 
expressions, phrases, and colocations of words, which are 
either peculiar to him, or are most frequent in his composi- 
tions.* But as this is not the place to do justice to a question 
of so much importance, and yet not material to the argument 


* Smucker’s translation of Storr and Flatt’s Bib. Theology. 


78 LECTURE III. 


of these lectures, I must refer you, for further knowledge and 
satisfaction, to the learned and complete work of professor 
Stuart, of Andover, on the Epistle to the Hebrews, or to an 
excellent article in the “Biblical Notes and Dissertations,” 
recently from the pen of Joseph John Gurney, of the society 
of Friends, in England. 

The Epistle of James, being addressed to Jewish believers, 
was for some time, to a considerable extent, unknown to the 
Gentile Christians. While this was the case, its authenticity 
was questioned, or rather was not certified among the Gen- 
tiles. As soon as this ceased to be the case, its authenticity 
was undoubted. It is of great importance to the character 
of this Epistle, that in the Syriac version, made at the end of 
the first or the beginning of the second century, while the 
second Epistle of Peter, the second and third of John, and 
the Apocalypse, are omitted, the Epistle of James, written 
particularly to the people for whom the version was made, is 
included and placed on an equality with all those books about 
which there was never a question in the church. In pro- 
portion as it became known among the Gentile Christians, 11 
passed through a severe and accurate scrutiny, till, in a short 
time, it was universally received, and has ever since been 
universally honoured, as an authentic and inspired portion 
of the oracles of God. 

With regard to the remaining Epistles, concerning the 
authenticity of which doubts were for a while entertained, it 
will suffice to remark in this place, that the fact of their not 
having been immediately recognised throughout the church 
as the works of the apostles, only shows that the persons 
who were in doubt had not yet received sufficient informa- 
tion to make up their judgment ; and that the primitive 
Christians, so far from being so greedy after additions to the 
sacred canon as to be. easily deceived by a plausible preten- 
sion to apostolic origin, were extremely deliberate and cautious 
in examining every candidate for admission into the cata- 


LECTURE III. 79 


logue of scripture. Such being the case, the subsequent re- 
ception of these Epistles, as soon as full time was given them 
to be universally circulated and known, is perfect proof that 
they were capable of enduring the most trying investigation 
of their inspired origin, and were honoured with a unanimous 
verdict as the veritable writings of those to whom they were 
ascribed, and as part and parcel of the word of God. ‘The 
reader may find abundant satisfaction, with regard to them, 
in Dr. Alexander’s excellent work on the canon of scripture. 

It has been stated, that at one period doubts were entertain- 
ed in the churches as to the authenticity of the book of Reve- 
lation. ‘Those doubts imply no deficiency of testimony. 
Until the fourth century, the character of this book was un- 
doubted, and its authority was universally acknowledged ; 
only one writer questioning whether John the evangelist was 
its author, and even he admitting that it was written by in- 
spiration of God. About the commencement of the fourth 
century, the Millenarian controversy having arisen and dis- 
tracted the churches, and the mysterious character of the 
book having been extensively employed in the support of 
new and extravagant doctrines, its character declined ; and 
without any reference to testimony in the case, its authenti- 
city was by some, though by no means universally or for a 
long time, brought into question. ‘Thus Eusebius, of that 
century, after having given a catalogue of the books univer- 
sally acknowledged, writes: “ After these, if it be thought fit, 
may be placed the Revelation of John, concerning which we 
shall observe the different opinions at a proper time.” And 
in another place: “There are, concerning this book, different 
opinions.” “This is the first doubt expressed by any re- 
spectable writer, concerning the canonical authority of this 
book; and Eusebius did not reject it, but would have. placed 
it next after those which were received with universal con- 
sent. And we find, at this very time, the most learned and 
judicious of the fathers received the Revelation without scru- 


80 LECTURE III. 


ple, and annexed it to their catalogues of the books of the 
New Testament.”* It is of no small importance that a book 
so full of evidence against the heresies of the celebrated Dr. 
Priestley, should have received from his pen the following 
testimony: “This book of Revelation, I have no doubt, was 
written by the apostle John. Sir Isaac Newton, with great 
truth, says, he does not find any other book of the New Testa- 
ment so strongly uttested, or commented upon so early as 
this. Indeed I think it impossible for any intelligent and 
candid person to peruse it without being struck, in the most 
forcible manner, with the peculiar dignity and sublimity of 
its composition, superior to that of any other writing what- 
ever; so as to be convinced that, considering the age in 
which it appeared, none but a person divinely inspired could 
have written it."t It is true, and at first may seem surpris- 
ing, that while a majority of the ancient catalogues contain 
this book, there are many in which it is omitted ; though it 
is known that’the authors of some of these acknowledged its 
authenticity. ‘The omissions are satisfactorily explained by 
the consideration that the object of these catalogues was the 
suidance of the people in reading the scriptures; and since 
the mysteriousness of this book and the use made of it, on 
the side of the Millenarian errors, when the catalogues were 
chiefly composed, seemed to render it inexpedient that it 
should be as generally read as the other scriptures, its name 
was excluded from several lists of books for universal use, 
without any intention of pronouncing upon its canonical 
character. : 

Having now exhibited satisfactory evidence of the authen- 
ticity of all the books of the New Testament, be it remarked 
that, while every part of the sacred volume is of inspired au- 
thority, and therefore of such importance as that no man can 
take away from it or add unto it without heinous offence 


—— 


* Alexander on the Canon. __t Priestley’s Notes on Scripture. 


LECTURE III. 81 


against God; still the argument for the divine mission of 
Jesus and for the divine origin of christianity depends chiefly 
upon the historical portions, and would exhibit no deficiency 
were no attention paid to the authenticity of the others. In 
what remains to be said, by way of addition to the various 
and unequalled evidence already adduced, we shall have a 
view particularly to the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. 

The testimony of the adversaries of christianity. 

It may be said, with some appearance of a plausible ob- 
jection to the testimony hitherto produced, that it is all de- 
rived, either from the devoted friends of the gospel, or else 
from those who professed to be its disciples. Is there no 
testimony from enemies? 'The books of the New 'Testament 
were widely circulated ; christian advocates, in their contro- 
versies with the Heathen, freely appealed to them ; Heathens, 
in their works of attack and defence, must have spoken of 
them. In what light did they regard them? Did they as- 
cribe them to their reputed authors, or question their authen- 
ticity? Now we do not grant that the testimony already 
produced is justly liable to the least disparagement on account 
of its having been derived exclusively from the friends of 
Christ. 'That certain ancients believed the facts contained 
in Cesar’s Commentaries has never been supposed to dimin- 
ish the value of their testimony to the authenticity of that 
work. We will take occasion, by and by, to show that the 
very fact that an early witness to the New Testament his- 
tory was not an enemy, but a friend, of the gospel, and had 
become a friend from having been once an enemy, is just the 
ingredient in his testimony that gives it peculiar conclusive- 
ness. Still, however, we are under no temptation to under- 
value the importance of an appeal to the opinions of adver- 
_garies. Let us inquire of enemies as well as friends—and 
first of Julzan. 

Julian, the emperor, united inteiligence, learning, anc 
power, with a persecuting zeal, in a resolute effort to root out 

7 


82 LECTURE II. 


christianity. In the year 361, he composed a work against 
its claims. We may be well assured, that if any thing could 
have been said against the authenticity of its books, he would 
have used it. His work is not extant; but from long ex- 
tracts, found in the answer by Cyril, a few years after, as 
well as from the statements of his opinions and arguments 
by this writer, it is unquestionable that Julian bore witness 
to the authenticity of the four Gospels and of the Acts of 
the Apostl:s. He concedes, and argues from, their early 
date; quotes them by name as the genuine works of their 
reputed authors; proceeds upon the supposition, as a thing 
undeniable, that they were the only historical books which 
Christians received as canonical—the only authentic narra- 
tives of Christ and his apostles, and of the doctrine they 
delivered. He has also yuoted, or plainly referred to, the 
Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians, and 
nowhere insinuates that the authenticity of any portion of 
the New Testament could reasonably be questioned.* Let 
us ascend a little higher. 

Hierocles, president of Bithynia, and a learned man, of 
about the year 303, united, with a cruel persecution of 
Christians, the publication of a book against christianity, 
in which, instead of issuing even the least suspicion that 
the New Testament was not written by those to whom its 
several parts were ascribed, he confines his effort to the hunt 
of internal flaws and contradictions. Besides this tacit 
acknowledgment, his work, or the extracts of it that remain, 
refer to, at least, six out of the eight writers of the books 
of the New Testament.t+ Let us ascend still higher. 

Porphyry, universally allowed to have been the most 
severe anil formidable adversary, in all primitive antiquity, 
wrote, about the year 270, a work against christianity. It is 
evident that he was well acquainted with the New 'Testament. 


* Lardner, iv. 341. t Ib. iv, 259. 


LECTURE Itt. 83 


In the little that has been preserved of his writings, there 
are plain references to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, 
and John, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistle to the 
Galatians.* Speaking of Christians, he calls Matthew their 
evangelist. “He possessed every advantage which natural 
abilities or political situation could afford, to liscover whether 
the New 'Testameut was a genuine work of the apostles 
and evangelists, or whether it was impose upon the world 
after the decease of its pretended authors. But no trace of 
this suspicion is any where to be found ; nor did it ever occur 
to Porphyry to suppose that it was spurious.”t How well 
this ingenious writer understood the value of an argument 
against the authenticity of a book of scripture, and how 
greedily he would have enlisted it in his war against chris- 
tianity, could he have found such a weajion, is evident from 
his well known effort to escape the prophetic inspiration of - 
the book of Daniel, by denying that it was written in the 
times of that prophet. We may ascend still higher. 

Celsus, esteemed a man of learning among the ancients, 
and a wonderful philosopher among modern intidels, wrote 
a laboured argument against the Christians. He flourished 
in the year 176, or about seventy-six years after the death 
of St. John. None can accuse him of a want of zeal to 
ruin christianity. None can complain against his testimony, 
as deficient in antiquity. An industrious, ingenious, learned, 
adversary of that age, must have known whatever was 
suspicious in the authorship of the New Testament writings. 
His book entitled “ The True Word, is unhappily lost; 
but in the answer, composed by Origen, the extracts from 
it are so large, that it is difficult to find of any ancient book, 
not extant, more extensive remains. The author quotes, 
from the Gospels, such a variety of particulars, even m 
these fragments, that the enumeration would prove almost 


* Lardner, iv. 234. t Marsh’s Michaelis, i, 43. 


84 LECTURE IL 


an abridgement of the Gospel narrative.* Origen has noticed 
in them about eighty quotations from the books of the New 
Testament, or references to them. Among these there is 
abundant evidence that Celsus was acquainted with the 
Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John. Sever al of Paul’s 

Epistles are alluded to. His whole argument proceeds upon 
the concession that the christian scriptures were the works 
of the authors to whom they were ascribed. Such a thing 
as a suspicion, to the contrary, is not breathed ; ai id yet no 
man ever wrote against christianity with greater virulence. 
Hence it appears, “bv the testimony of one of the most 
malicious adversaries the christian religion ever had, and 
who was also a man of considerable parts and learning, that 
the writings of the evangelists were extant in his time, which 
was the next century to that in which the apostles lived ; 

and that those accounts were written by Uhrist’s own Fie 
ples, and, consequently, in the very age in which: the facts 
there related, were done, and when, therefore, it would have 
been the easiest thing in the world to have convicted them 
of falsehood, if they had not been true.”t “ Who can for- 
bear (says the devout Doddridge) adoring the depth of divine 
wisdom, in laying up such a firm foundation of our faith 
in the gospel history, in the writings of one who was so 
inveterate an enemy to it, and so indefatigable in his attempts 
to overthrow it.”t Who, I will add, can help the acknow- 
ledgment that in Celsus, Porphyry, Hierocles, and Julian 
all a them learned controversionalists, as well as devoted 
opponents and persecutors of Christians, extending their 
testimony, from the seventieth year after the last of the 
apostles, to the year of our Lord 361—every reasonable de- 
mand for the testimony of enemies is fully met, and a gra- 


* Doddridge, in Lardner, iv. 145 and 7. 

+ Answer to “Christianity as old as the Creation,” by Leland, yol, ii. ¢. 
v. p. 150—154. 

+ Doddridge, in Lardner, iv. 147. 


LECTURE III. 85 


cious Providence has perfected the external evidence for the 
authenticity of the New Testament? 

We proceed to confirm the abounding proof, already ad- 
duced, by a brief reference to the language and style of the 
New Testament. 

I. The language and style are in perfect accordance with 
the local and other circumstonces of the reputed writers. 
They were Jews by birth; Jews by education; Jews by 
numerous and strong attachments ; Jews in all their asso- 
ciations of thought and feeling. Jews wereyin great part, 
the persons to whom they wrote. Jewish prejudices, objec- 
tions, and peculiarities, were, to a great extent, the obstacles 
intheir way. The religious and political institutions of the 
Jewish nation, though perfectly exterminated in a few years 
after they wrote, were in full establishment till after the death 
of all of them except St. Johth. Hence it is reasonably ex- 
pected that Jewish peculiarities should be found frequently 
and broadly stamped upon any writings truly professing to 
have proceeded from their pens. Such, notoriously, is the 
case with the writings of the New Testament. None but 
Jews could have composed them. None but Jews who lived 
before the destruction of their temple, and city, and polity, 
and nation, could have cast them in their present mould; or 
marked them with all those indescribable and inimitable 
touches of a Jewish hand, which their style and language 
every where exhibit. ‘The use of words and phrases which 
are known to have been peculiar to Judea in the times of the 
apostles ; the continual, familiar, and natural allusions to the 
ceremonies and temple service of the Jews, as then existing, 
and which soon passed away ; the universal prevalence of 
a mode of thinking and of expression, which none but a 
Jew, brought up under the Old ‘Testament, always accus- 
tomed to think of religion through the types and shadows of 
the law, and reared amidst the usages, prejudices, associa- 


tions, and errors of the Jewish people. as subsisting in the 
asi | 


86 LECTURE III. 


times of the apostles, could have introduced without awk- 
wardness and obvious forgery; all bear decided witness, not 
only that the writers of the New Testament were Jews origi- 
nally, in every sense ; but that they must have formed their 
habits of thinking, feeling and writing, before the destruction 
of the Jewish state ; in other words, before the fortieth year 
after the death of Christ. From that time, so entuely was 
every vestige of the religion and polity of the Jews destroyed, 
that, except among those whose minds had heen moulded 
under pre-existing circumstances, the writing of a book in 
the language and style, and abounding in the peculiarities 
of the New Testament, would have been, at least, next to 
impossible. 

This conclusion will appear the more inevitable, when you 
consider the characteristic features by which the Greek of 
the New Testament is distinguished. In the times of the 
apostles, Greek was almost a universal language. It was 
spread over all Palestine. The Jewish coast, on the Medi- 
terranean, was occupied by cities, either wholly, or half 
Greek. On the eastern border of the land, from the Arnon 
upwards, towards the north, the cities were Greek ; and, 
towards the south, in possession of the Greeks. Several 
cities of Judea and Galilee were either entirely, or, at least, 
half peopled by Greeks. “ Being thus favoured on all sides, 
this language was spread, by means of traffic and inter- 
course, through all classes, so that the people (though with 
many exceptions), considered generally, understood . it, 
although they adhered more to their own language.”* But 
the Greek, thus spoken in Palestine, was not like that of 
Attica. nor of the cities of Asia Minor; but having become 
degenerated, in consequence of its associations with people 
whose native tongue was Hebrew, by means of Chaldee and 


SD oot CAT UT REESE SOM Ey OS Se ee ee ee 


* Hue on the Greek languages in Palestine —Bvb. Repository, No. IIL. 
Andover. 


LECTURE LII. 87 


Syriac intermixtures, into Western Aramean, it contained a 
large share of the idioms and other peculiarities belonging 
to this heterogeneous neighbour. Such was the language 
in which the apostles must have written. Now, if the books 
of the New Testament be their writings, they must contain 
the characteristic features of that Palestine Greek. Such is 
most manifestly the case. These books are in Greek, but 
not pure and classic, such as a native and educated Grecian 
would have written; but in Hebraic Greek; in a language 
mixed up with the words and idioms of that peculiar dialect 
of the Hebrew which constituted the vernacular tongue of 
the inhabitants of Judea and Galilee in the age of the apos- 
tles. Had it been otherwise; were the language of the New 
Testament pure and classic; then the writers must have 
been either native and educated Grecians, or else Jews, of 
much more Attic cultivation than the ay stles of Christ. 
In either case a suspicion would attach tc the authenticity 
of our sacred books. Neither case being irue, the evidence 
of authenticity is materially confirmed. 

But we go further. The Greek of the New ‘Testament 
could not have been written by men who hia! learned their 
language after the age of the apostles. This n:ingling of 
Grecian and Aramean, as it is preserved in the New 'Testa- 
ment, ceased to be the familiar tongue of Christians in Pales- 
tine before the death of St. John. When Jerusalem, with 
the whole civil and religious polity of the Jews, was, -in the 
seventieth year of the christian era, entirely destroyed, and 
the descendants of Abraham were rooted out of the land, 
and foreigners came in from all quarters to take their places ; 
the language of the country underwent such a change that, 
except with the scattered few who had survived the desola- 
tion of their country, the Greek of the New Testament was 
no more a living language. When St. John died, there was 
probably not a man alive who could speak or write precisely 
that tongue. In the second century, an attempt to compose 


88 LECTURE III. 


a book in the name of the apostles, and in imitation of their 
Greek, would have been detected as easily as if a full bred 
Frenchman, never out of France, should attempt to com- 
pose a volume in a dialect of English, and endeavour to 
pass it off as the work of a plain, sensible, but unpolished 
Yorkshireman. Hence, while doubts were entertained for 
a while, in some parts of the church, as to the authenticity 
of some portions of the New Testament, it was never 
doubted whether they were written by men who had lived 
when the Greek of Palestine, as it had been in the apostolic 
age, was yet alive. 

Il. The language and style of the New Testament are 
in perfect harmony with the known characters of the reputed 
writers. The apostles and evangelists were men of plain, 
sound understanding, but without any polish of education, 
and not likely to-adorn their writings with much rhetorical 
dress. ‘Paul, the only exception to this character, was well 
read in Jewish, and, we have reason to believe, in Grecian 
literature. From other sources, besides the New ‘Testament, 
we are informed of certain peculiarities of natural character, 
as having distinguished some of those to whom the books of 
‘the New Testament are ascribed. John, for example, 1s 
always represented in ecclesiastical history as having been 
remarkable for meekness, and gentleness, and a manner and 
spirit full of mild affection. Paul, we always read of as 
characterized by prompt, energetic zeal and animated bold- 
ness. If the books bearing their names were written by 
those apostles, we must expect to find in them the distinctive 
stamp of their respective characters. So it is. In the his- 
torical books, none of which the educated Paul composed, 
there is no ornament of style; but merely the simplicity, 
and directness, of plain, sensible men, honestly relating what 
they familiarly knew, and disregarding style in their intent- 
ness upon truth. In the Epistles of Paul, however, the 
case is entirely different. There we behold the style of a 


LECTURE III. 89 


writer brought up in the schools, though obviously in the 
schools of Judea. Accustomed to writing and to argument, 
he reasons precisely as we should expect of Saul of Tarsus, 
after having been educated at the feet of Gamaliel, and ar- 
rested by divine power and grace on the road to Damascus, 
and made to “count all things but loss for the excellency of 
the knowledge of Christ.” Every where in the epistles, 
bearing his name, are written the strong characters of the 
peculiar zeal and boldness, as well as education, that belonged 
to Paul; while throughout the writings ascribed to John, 
there breathes the sweet spirit of gentleness and tender 
affection, so characteristic of “that disciple whom Jesus 
loved.” Similar statements might be made with regard to 
other writers of the New Testament, in proportion as their 
peculiarities of temperament are known and conspicuous. 
From all that has now been said, it may easily be made 
to appear, that if the historical books of the New Testament, 
the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, on which our subse- 
quent argument will chiefly depend, be not authentic; in 
plainer terms, if they be forgeries, nothing less than a mira- 
cle can account for their early and universal currency. Re- 
member that John lived to the end of the first century. It 
cannot be supposed that books, falsely pretending to have 
been wiitten by those very evangelists, with whom he had 
been so intimately associated, and one of them professing to 
have been written by atlas could have gained a reputable 
currency in the churches while he lived. He certainly knew 
what le and the other evangelists had published; and no 
motive can be assigned that could have induced him to suffer 
a forgeiy to pass unexposed. We conclude, therefore, that 
if these books be not authentic, they must have been palmed 
on the churches after the death of John; that is, after the 
beginning of the second century. Suppose we descend to 
the thi:d. Can it be imagined that the deception was intro- 
duced i:fter this century commenced? Impossible ; since by 


90 LECTURE III. 


this time, the books in question were read, every Lord’s 
Day, in all the churches; quoted by writers of all countries ; 
universally received as the oracles of God. If a deception 
was introduced at all, it was brought in somewhere between 
the death of John and the third century—somewhere in the 
course of the second. Now, to obtain a clearer view of the 
difficulties which such an attempt must have had to over- 
come, let it be supposed that during the present year, a vol- 
ume containing a digest of laws, under the title of “ Laws 
of the city of New York,” should appear among us, pre- 
tending to be a code of municipal regulations, composed, 
about seventy years ago, by a few of the most distinguished 
inhabitants of that period; and to have been received by the 
citizens, and appealed to in their municipal courts ever since, 
as the book of the laws of this city; claiming, moreover, to 
be acknowledged and obeyed by the present generation as 
the very code inherited from their fathers. What would be 
its chance? A moral impossibility would prevent its suc- 
cess. Nothing but lunacy would undertake such a scheme. 
It would be enough for lawyers and judges and people to 
say: “It was never heard of before. It has never been 
known in our courts.” But this is only a feeble illustration 
of the case before us. If the books in question were forged 
in the name of the evangelists, you must suppose, that at 
some period, within a hundred years of St. John, while 
many were living who had either known him personally or 
conversed with those who did enjoy that privilege, a volume 
appeared among the churches, differing widely from those 
books which, as works of the evangelists, they had received 
and read from the beginning, and yet demanding to be con- 
sidered as nothing more nor less than those very works. 
You must suppose the abbettors of the imposition to have 
said to the’ various nations of Christians: “’These are 
the genuine Gospels in which you were educated ; which 
your fathers died for; which your persecutors endeavoured 


LECTURE III. 91 


to destroy, and your martyrs laboured to save ; which have 
heen daily read in your families, expounded in your churches, 
(quoted in your writings, and appealed to in all your con- 
troversies with heretics and enemies.” And yet it must 
be supposed that Christians, notwithstanding their notorious 
love for the writings of the evangelists, and their great care 
in preserving them, were so easily and universally imposed 
on, as never to perceive that these fraudulent works, instead 
of having been expounded and read and quoted and appealed 
to in all their churches, had never been heard of before. 
You have to suppose, moreover, that while christianity was 
surrounded on all sides and opposed at every step by keen- 
sighted and determined enemies—Jews, on the one hand, 
with all their cunning—Greeks and Romans on the other, 
with all their skill and power, ever watching, accusing, and 
persecuting—none of them ever pretended to the discovery 
that these books, so fraudulently introduced, were not those 
which the apostles wrote and Christians had always read ; 
but all believed them to be the identical writings to which 
the churches had invariably referred as the law and the 
testimony. 

You must go still further, and suppose that notwithstand- 
ing the wide publicity which the genuine works of the 
apostles had obtained among the primitive churches, so 
immediately did these spurious productions expel them from 
the notice and recollection of all people, that no interval is 
known during which the question between the two conflicting 
volumes was so much as even debated. Instantly, (you 
must suppose), that the spurious were treated every where 
with the reverence belonging to inspired books ; that though 
(livers sects of heresies were starting up in various parts, all 
recognised their authority; that the churches of Rome, Co 
rinth, Ephesus, Colosse, Philippi, Galatia, and Thessalo- 
nica, all believed that these several epistles, falsely pretending 
to have come to them from St. Paul, were those very ones, 


92 LECTURE II. 


the autographs of which were then in their possession, and 
copies of which they had been continually reading in public 
from the time ‘the originals were received from the apostle. 
Lastly, it must be supposed, that so perfect was the forgery, 
that although every weapon and artifice that wit, and learn- 
ing, and power, could contrive, has been employed, during 
eighteen hundred years, for the single purpose of under- 
mining -the foundations of christianity, no labourer in the 
cause has yet succeeded in picking a flaw in the authenticity 
of its books. He that can digest all this for the purpose of 
maintaining that our sacred writings are not authentic, can 
swallow the most abject absurdity. He supposes an endless 
succession of miracles wrought upon innumerable minds for 
the promotion of imposture. He believes the laws of nature 
to have been continually violated, under the government of 
a holy God, to countenance unrighteousness. In sustaining 
this belief, he must: adopt a principle with regard to miracles, 
the boldness and novelty of which, even Hume would have 
been jealous of. He was so modest as only to maintain that 
no testimony can prove a miracle. Here, however, the scep- 
tic must maintain that the most absurd miracle can be proved, 
not only without any testimony, but ggainst all testumony. 
Enough has now. been said to enable you to judge whether 
the learning or the honesty of the miserable Paine is most to 
be admired, when he says: “Those who are not much ac- 
quainted with, ecclesiastical history, may suppose that the 
book called the New Testament has existed ever since the 
time of Jesus Christ; but the fact is historically otherwise. 
There was no such book as the New Testament till more 
than three hundred years after the time that Christ is said 
to have lived.” Whether we ought to save this poor sceptic 
from the charge of a gross and deliberate falsehood, by im- 
puting to him disgraceful ignorance, I leave you to decide. 
And now, having maintained our cause, permit me to say, 
that-in argument with unbelievers, we cannot, in justice, be 


LECTURE III. - 93 


required to present any of the evidence to which you have 
been listening. The whole burden of proof lies with the 
objector. Should the authenticity of Paradise Lost be called 
in question, no believer in its Miltonian origin would feel 
himself called upon to prove it. We should wait in calm- 
ness, till the sceptic had sustained his objection. The book 
has lived long enough with a fair reputation to be considered 
authentic, till proved to be spurious. So would common 
justice warrant us in saying with regard to the New Testa- 
ment. Highteen centuries of high and holy reputation are 
enough to sustain its authenticity, till sceptics, besides pro- 
nouncing, shall prove it a forgery. Let the objector be kind 
enough to state the proof of its spuriousness ; let him show 
the deficiencies in its evidence; let him establish objec- 
tions to its legitimacy, which all the enemies that sur- 
rounded its birth were unable to venture; then will it be 
time for friends to stand on the defensive, and prove its 
apostolic parentage. But this we know not that any opposer 
of christianity ever pretended to have done. How these 
books were forced upon the world; when Christians were so 
asleep as not to perceive that they were not the books which 
they had always been reading, and consulting, and expound- 
ing, and loving, and suffering for; when the enemies of 
Christians were so miraculously blinded and the den of lions, 
in which the church for so many centuries existed, was so 
miraculously hushed. and overruled, that such an imposture 
could gain admission, and dwell in universal quietness, with- 
out so much as one paw to pounce on the prey, or one vigil- 
ant foe to discover its existence—what is the evidence that 
such an event ever took place; I never heard of a human 
heing undertaking to show. You might as well pretend to 
prove that the Declaration of Independence, circulated in 
numberless copies through the country, is not authentic; 
that our revolutionary fathers published no such document, 
or else that ours is not the ale aa which they published. 


94 LECTURE Ill. 


The adversaries of christianity are wary. It would require 
learning, and time, and talents, to make even a plausible 
show of strength, in conflict with the testimony to the au- 
thenticity of the New Testament; but it takes no time, re- 
quires no talent, or knowledge, for such persons to insinuate 
that its books are forgeries—to put out a wise suspicion that 
they were not written by the original disciples. No argu- 
ment can refute a sneer, nor any human skill prevent its 
mischief. They know that many a mind will catch the 
plague of infidelity by the touch of their insinuation, with- 
out ever finding, or caring to seek, the antidote. “ Any body 
can soil the repute of an individual, however pure and 
chaste, by uttering a suspicion, which his enemies will be- 
lieve, and his friends never hear of. A puff of idle wind 
can take up a million of the seeds of the thistle, and do a 
work of mischief which the husbandman must labour long 
and hard to undo; the floating particles being too trifling to 
be seen, and too light to be stopped. Such are the seeds of 
infidelity—so easily sown—so difficult to be gathered up, 
and yet so pernicious in their fruits. It is the work of God, 
much more than of man, that they do not spread more ra- 
pidly and widely. The hand of Divine Providence inter- 
poses to arrest it, where the regular array of human reasoning 
would have no room to use its strength. 

Here we should leave the subject, were it not that one 
question of importance remains to be answered. How do 
we know that the New Testament has preserved its integ- 
rity? While it appears so conclusively that our present 
books are verily those which the evangelists and apostles 
wrote, and the primitive churches loved and read ; how does 
it appear that they have undergone no material alteration 
since those times? On this head, the answer is complete. 

We may reason from the perfect impossibility of any ma- 
terial alteration. 'The sctiptures, as soon as written, were 
published. Christians eagerly sought for them; copies 


‘LECTURE III. 95 


were multiplied; carried into distant countries; esteemed a 
sacred treasure, for which disciples were willing to die. 
They were daily read in families, and expounded in churches; 
writers quoted them; enemies attacked them; heretics en- 
deavoured to elude their decisions ; and the orthodox were 
vigilant, lest the former, in their efforts to escape the inter- 
pretation, should change the text. In a short time, copies 
were scattered over the whole inhabited portion of the earth. 
Versions were made into different languages. Harmonies, 
and collations, and commentaries, and catalogues, were care- 
fully made and published. 'Thus universal notoriety, among 
friends and enemies, was given to every book. How, in such 
circumstances, could material alterations be made without 
exposure? If made in one copy, they must have been made 
universally ; or else some unaltered copies would have de- 
scended to us, or would have been taken notice of and quoted 
in ecclesiastical history, and the writings of ancient times. 
if made universally, the work must have been done either 
by friends, or by heretics, or by open enemies. Is it suppo- 
sable that open enemies, unnoticed by Christians, could have 
altered all or a hundreth part of the copies, when they were 
so continually read, and so affectionately protected? Could 
the sects of heretics have done such a work, when they were 
ever watching one another as jealously, as all their doings 
were continually watched by the churehes? Could érue 
Christians have accomplished such a task, even if any mo- 
tive could have led them to desire it, while heretics on one 
hand, and innumerable enemies on the other, were always 
awake and watchful, with the scriptures in their hands, to 
lay hold of the least pretext against the defenders of the 
faith? It was at least as unlikely that material alterations 
in the New ‘Testament should pass unnoticed and become 
universal, in the early centuries and in all succeeding ones, 
as that an important change in a copy of the constitution of 
the United States should creep into all the copies scattered 


96 LECTURE III. 


over the country, and be handed down as part of the origina | 
document, unnoticed by the various parties and jealousies 
by which that instrument is so closely watched, and so con- 
stantly referred to. Such was the precise assertion of a 
writer of the fourth century, on this very subject. “'The in- 
tegrity (says Augustine) of the books of any one bishop, how- 
ever eminent, cannot be so completely kept as that of the 
canonical scripture, translated into so many languages, and 
kept by the people of every age; and yet some there have 
been, who have forged writings with the names of apostles. 
In vain, indeed, because that scripture has been so esteemed, 
so celebrated, so known.” Reasoning with a heretic, he 
says: “If any one should charge you with.having interpo- 
lated some texts alleged by you, would you not immediately 
answer that it is impossible for you to do such a thing in books 
read. by all Christians? And that if any such attempt had 
been made by you, it would have been presently discerned and 
defeated by comparing the ancient copies? Well, then, for 
the same reason that the scriptures cannot be corrupted by 
you, neither could they be corrupted by any other people.”t 

The agreement among the existing manuscripts of the 
New Testament, proves that this holy volume has not been 
corrupted. Of no ancient classic are the extant manuscripts 
so numerous, as those of the New Testament. Griesbach, 
in making his edition, collated more than three hundred and 
fifty. "These were written in different ages and countries. 
Some of them are as old as the fourth or fifth century. 
Some contain all, others only particular books or parts of 
books of the New Testament. Several contain detached 
portions or lessons, as appointed to be read on certain occa- 
sions in the churches. In none of them have we any thing 
differing in essential points from the text at present received. 
It is true, and it sounds to uninformed ears quite alarming, 


* Lardner, ii. 594. + Ib. ii. 228, 


LECTURE III. 97 


that in the manuscripts collated for Griesbach’s edition of the 
New Testament, as many as one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand various readings are said to have been found. But all 
alarm will seem gratuitous when it is known that not one in 
a thousand of these various readings makes any perceptible, 
or at most any important variation of meaning ; that they 
consist almost entirely in manifest mistakes of transcribers, 
such as the omission or transposition of letters, errors in 
pointing, in grammar, in the use of certain words instead of 
others of similar meaning, and in changing the position of 
words in a sentence. ‘he very worst manuscript, were it 
our only copy of the New Testament, would not pervert one 
christian doctrine or precept. By all the omissions and all 
the additions contained in all the manuscripts, no fact, no 
doctrine, no duty, presented in our authorized version, is ren- 
dered either obscure or doubtful. The diversity of readings 
is ample proof that our present manuscripts were made from 
various copies in ancient times; while the inconsiderable 
importance of this diversity of readings shows how nearly 
those copies conformed to the original scriptures, and how 
little difference would be seen between our present New 'T’es- 
tament and the autographs of its writers, could they be now 
collated. No ancient book has preserved its text so uncor- 
rupt as those of the New Testament. None is attended with 
so many means of detecting an inaccurate reading. A com- 
mon reader, could he compare the various manuscripts, 
would be sensible of no more difference among them than 
among the several copies of his English Bible, which have 
been printed during the last two hundred years. 

The uncorrupt preservation of the text of the New Testa- 
ment is also evident from its agreement with the nwmerous 
quotations in the works of early christian writers, and with 
those ancient translations which are now extant. In the 
remaining books of the fathers of the first three centuries, 


quotations from the New Testament are so abundant, that 
8" | 


98 LECTURE III. 


almost the whole of the sacred text could be gathered from 
those sources. Excepting some six or seven verses, the 
genuineness of which is not perfectly settled, there is an 
exact agreement, in all material respects, between those quo- 
tations and the corresponding parts of our New ‘Testament. 
The same confirmation, though still more satisfactory, is 
derived from ancient versions. We possess, in various lan- 
guages, versions of the New Testament, reaching as far 
back as the early part of the second century. The Meso 
Gothic version, discovered by Mai in 1817, and made by 
Ulphilas, bishop of the Mzso Goths, in the year 370, of 
which only fragments were possessed before, has the same 
text as ours. The old Syriac version, called Peshito, is con- 
sidered by some of the best Syriac scholars to have been 
made before the close of the first century. It was certainly 
in existence and general use before the close of the second. 
Though never brought into contact with our copies of the 
New ‘Testament, because not known in Europe till the six- 
teenth century ; though handed down by a line of tradition 
perfectly independent of, and unknown to, that by which our 
Greek Testament was received ; yet, when the two came to 
be compared, the text of the one was almost an exact version 
of the text of the other. The difference was altogether 
unimportant. So clearly and impressively has Divine Pro- 
vidence attested the integrity of our beloved scriptures. 

It is now high time we had relieved your attention. You 
will allow me to proceed, in the subsequent lectures, on the 
belief that the authenticity and integrity of the New Testa- 
ment have been satisfactorily proved. But let us not sepa- 
rate without acknowledging, in thankfulness of heart, our 
debt of gratitude to Him who, on a subject of such unspeak- 
able importance, has given us such abundant reason for 
complete conviction. He has made the great truth, for 
which we have been contending, like “the round world, so 
sure, that it cannot be moved.” 


LECTURE IV. 99 


LECTURE IV. 
CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 


In the last two lectures our attention was occupied with 
the authenticity and integrity of the New Testament. A 
body of proof was presented, of such variety and conclu- 
siveness, as should cause us to feel that, in taking these 
important points for granted in our subsequent course, we 
assume nothing which every candid mind should not acknow- 
ledge to have been satisfactorily established. You will 
allow me, therefore, to treat the books of the New Testa- 
ment as needing no further argument to prove that they were 
written in the age to which they are ascribed, and by the 
authors whose names they bear. 

But it should be remembered, that a book may be authen- 
tic, and yet not credible. It may have been written indeed 
by the reputed author, and yet its narrative may not be 
worthy of confidence. This, I say, is a possible case. Ex- 
amples illustrating it are not numerous. So generally do 
authentic histories prove to be true, that when we have ascer- 
tained a book to have been composed by the individual whose 
name is on it, we have a strong presumptive argument for 
the truth of all the conspicuous and important features in its 
narrative. But inasmuch as these two things are not always 
associated, an important question remains to be determined, 
before we can open the New Testament as the book of the 
life and religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and worthy of 
entire reliance, as an account of what was done and taught 
by himself and his apostles. Does the New Testament con- 
tain a true history of events connected with the ministry of 


100 LECTURE IV. 


Jesus and his primitive disciples, so that we may receive as 
historically accurate whatever is related therein? This 
refers to what is usually called the credibility of the gospel 
history, and expresses the subject of our present lecture. 

But lest the bearing of my remarks should not be distinctly 
understood, I will endeavour to state the subject still more 
precisely. Observe then; it is not the inspiration of the 
gospel history, or that it was written by holy men as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost, that we shall seek to prove 
this evening; nor that it contains a revelation from God ; 
nor that its doctrines are true; nor that any of its facts were 
miraculous; these are subjects which it would be premature 
to introduce at present. All at which we now aim, is to fur- 
nish conclusive evidence that the gospel history is true, in 
the same sense as Marshall’s Life of Washington is truae— 
that what it relates, as matter of fact, is worthy of entire 
reliance as matter of fact, independently of all inferences or 
doctrines with which it may be connected. 

How do we prove the credibility of the gospel history ? 
L answer: precisely as you would ascertain the credibility of 
any other history. ‘Though, as in the case of authenticity, 
we are ready to produce a variety and an abundance of evi- 
dence, far exceeding what the best established and the most 
unquestionable books of ancient profane history can pretend to, 
still the nature of the evidence is the same in one case as the 
other. The fact that one history is called sacred, and the 
other profane; that in one book, the actions of a holy and 
extraordinary philanthropist, named Jesus, are related ; and 
in another the actions of a wicked and extraordinary man- 
slayer, named Cesar, are related ; occasions not the least 
difference in the nature of the evidence by which the credi- 
bility of both must be ascertained. 

Here it would be perfectly safe and reasonable to rest the 
question of credibility upon the proof arrived at in the last 
lecture. Although it does not follow, in all cases, that to 


LECTURE IV. 101 


prove a book authentic, is to prove it credible also, with 
regard to its principal events, yet in the case before us, the fact 
that the books of the New Testament were written in the 
first century of christianity, and by the apostles and original 
disciples of Christ, is complete evidence that, in respect to 
the main events of the gospel history, they are true. If one 
should write a romance, calling it the memoir of some well 
known and distinguished personage, and publish it, not as 
grave, credible biography, but under the character of a novel, 
the authenticity of the work would have no connexion with 
its truth. But should he issue a book professing to be the 
true biography of Washington; should he vouch in every 
way for its truth, and stake his reputation upon its accuracy, 
in the midst of a generation familiar with the life of that 
noble man, and still containing some who were his compan- 
ions and the eye-witnesses of many of his deeds, it would be 
reasonably inferred that, unless the author were an idiot or a 
madman, his work must be correct, at least, in the great mass 
of its statements and in all its conspicuous events. He must 
be aware that, under such circumstances, no important nar- 
rative without truth could escape detection. 'The fact, there- 
fore, that he has published, in the midst of this generation, 
what he expects to be received as a correct biography of 
Washington, is sufficient warrant that, however inaccurate 
it may be in minute details, and however deficient in many 
respects of good writing and useful history, we may safely 
receive its principal narratives. Sucha thing cannot be pro- 
duced as a book published in the age to which its events 
are said to have occurred, and among the people to whose 
minds those events are said to have been familiar; a book 
which its author gravely avowed, and defended, as true and 
accurate ; and yet in its principal narratives, in its prominent 
characters and occurrences, was not in accordance with fact. 
Men have too much sense, if not too much honesty, to at- 
tempt such a Quixotic adventure ; especially when character 


102 LECTURE IV. 


and worldly interests are committed by the falsehood. But 
there is no book, to which this remark is so applicable as the 
New ‘Testament. Not only was it published in the age in 
which the events related are asserted to have occurred, and 
among the people to whom they are said to have been noto- 
rious ; but in an age and among a people awake to the whole 
subject of its history; determined to sift its correctness to 
the uttermost; capable of the severest scrutiny, and anxious 
to take advantage of the smallest inaccuracy. This the 
writers were perfectly aware of. acy must have known 
that in the brevity of the history ; in the fewness of its prin- 
cipal facts; in the great prominence and notoriety of each ; 
in the few persons to whom they belong, as their leading 
agents ; in the few places and the confined region in which 
they are said to have occurred ; and in the brief space of 
time within which they were all embraced ; their adversaries 
possessed advantages for investigation which nothing but 
bold and plain truth could confront, and no fiction could pos- 
sibly elude. ‘That, in the face of all these advantages, they 
did publish, and stake their characters and lives upon the 
correctness of their narratives, is a full warrant that they 
published truth. This argument can only be escaped by 
charging the writers of the New Testament with a degree of 
idiocy or madness, which the eminent wisdom and excellence 
of their works prove to have been impossible. I venture to 
say, that should the same argument be alleged with equal 
force in behalf of any other ancient book of history, its 
eredibility, as to the main events related would be considered, 
independently of any other evidence, as placed beyond a 
reasonable suspicion. 

Here, then, we might proceed to open the New ‘Testament 
as a book of correct narrative; certified that, because authen- 
tic, it is therefore, as to all important matters of fact, credible. 
But we are not restricted to a single method of proof. The 
subject is compassed about with a cloud of witnesses. We 


LECTURE IV. 103 


take up another and broader plan of argument, the force of 
which none can mistake. 

Let me ask by what sort of evidence you would feel 
assured of the credibility of any history, professing to relate 
events of a passed age? Suppose you should discover a 
volume hitherto concealed, professing to have been written 
by some well known individual of the Augustan age, and to 
contain a narrative of events in the personal history and 
domestic life of Augustus Cesar. You would first examine 
into its authenticity. That settled, you would inquire into 
the credibility of its narrative. The first question would be, 
did the writer possess every advantage of knowing the events 
in the personal history of Augustus? May I depend on the 
sufficiency of his knowledge? Now he may not have lived 
with Augustus, and yet his knowledge may have been per- 
fectly adequate. But your mind would be fully satisfied on 
this head, should it appear that the writer was not only a 
contemporary, but that he was domesticated with Augustus; 
conversed familiarly with him, lived at his table, assisted at 
his councils, accompanied him on his journeys. 

The question of adequate knowledge being thus at rest, 
another would remain—-May I depend on the honesty of the 
writer? In ordinary cases, you would be satisfied if nothing 
appeared in the book itself, or in the testimony of contempo- 
raneous writings, iinpeaching his honesty. But your satis- 
faction would be much increased should you discover, in the 
style and spirit of the narrative, in its simplicity, modesty, 
and freedom of manner, in the circumstantial character of 
its details and the frequency of its allusions to time, place, 
and persons, those internal features of honesty, which it is 
so extremely difficult, if not impossible, to counterfeit. Your 
confidence would grow exceedingly if, on a coimparison of 
the book with other well established histories of the same 
times, you should discover, not only that there is no contra- 
diction in any particular, but that all its allusions to the 


104 LECTURE IV. 


customs, institutions, prejudices, and political events of the 
times, are abundantly confirmed from other sources. ‘This 
would set the honesty of the writer in a very favourable light. 

But suppose that, at this stage, you should discover three 
other books, upon the same subject; each evidently written 
by a person in the family and confidence of Augustus, or 
else with equally favourable opportunities of knowing him ; 
each evidently an independent work, and having all the 
inward and outward marks of truth before detailed. Sup- 
pose, that on comparing these four histories together, you 
find that, while each contains some minor facts which the 
others do not, and relates, what all contain in common, in 
its own style and language, there is no disagreement among 
them; but on the contrary, the most perfect confirmation, 
one of another. Surely, after this, no further evidence could 
be demanded of the veracity of all those historians. But 
still, though you would have no right to require, you might 
perhaps discover additional evidence. You might search 
collateral history for the private characters of those writers ; 
and how would it heighten your satisfaction to find that 
universally they were esteemed beyond reproach, even by 
their personal opponents. You might also inquire what mo- 
tive they could have had for deception ; and how conclusive 
would it seem in their favour to discover that, so far from 
any suspicion of such a motive attaching to them, they had 
undertaken to publish what they did, with the certainty of 
sacrificing every thing earthly, and actually plunged them- 
selves by it into poverty, contempt, and suffering. One can 
hardly imagine stronger evidence of truth. None could, 
with any reason, require it. 

But yet there might be additional evidence. ‘These histo- 
rians, perhaps, had many and bitter personal adversaries: 
How did they treat their books? The books were published 
during the lifetime of many who had seen Augustus, and 
had witnessed the principal events described: they were 


LECTURE IV. 105 


published in the very places where those events took place, 
and in the midst of thousands who knew all about them. 
How, then, did their enemies treat these histories?. Now, 
should you discover that the personal adversaries of these 
four writers, however disposed, were unable to deny, but on 
the contrary acknowledged, assumed, and reasoned wpon 
their narratives as true; and furthermore, that the thousands 
who had witnessed the’ principal events recorded, never 
contradicted those narratives, but in numerous instances af- 
forded all the confirmation they were capable of; I am sure 
you would think the whole evidence for the credibility of 
those four histories, not only conclusive, but singularly and 
wonderfully so. 

I have thus sketched a mass of evidence, and a variety of 
adequate evidence, which, were the half of it required for 
any book of ancient history but the Bible, would bring: its 
credibility into utter condemnation. If a book, with all this 
in its favour, ought not to be believed, historical truth, or 
the possibility of ascertaining it, must be given up. But 
who would think of resisting such evidence? What would 
be thought of the intellect, not to speak of the candour of 
the man, who, with all this before him, should take up the 
memoirs of the life of Augustus Cesar, as above supposed, 
and not feel that it were the absurdest folly to question the 
accuracy of their statements? In laying out this sketch, I 
have exhibited a general view of the evidence for the credi- 
bility of the gospel history. In proceeding, now, to more 
particular details, I hope to show you that every branch of 
the evidence I have glanced at, however vain to seek it in 
favour of any other ancient history, can be cited in attesta- 
tion of the credibility of that in the New Testament. 

From the brief view we have taken of the evidence which 
may be brought for the credibility of any historical docu- 
ment, it appears that the great points to be made out in favour 
_of the writer are these Bias NP ei knowledge and trust- 


106 LECTURE IV. 


worthy honesty. Did he know enough to write a tue ac- 
count? and then, was he honest enough to be unable to 
write any other than a true account 2 Establish these, and 
the book is established—the question 1s closed. Let us take 
this plan as to the history before us. We have several inde- 
pendent writings containing the gospel history. Let us 
select that of St. John, and try the question first upon it. 
We begin, then, with this most important inquiry : 

I. Had the writer of this book sufficient opportunities of 
possessing adequate knowledge as to those matters of fact 
which he has related 2 1 do not suppose that much array of 
argument can be necessary to prove that he had every oppor- 
tunity. It is to be first considered that the amount of 
knowledge required to enable John, or either of the other 
evangelists, to give an accurate account of so much of the 
life of Christ and of the transactions connected with his 
cause, as he has embraced in his narrative, was not very con- 
siderable. ‘The gospel history is contained in a small space. 
Twenty-nine or thirty pages, of a common family Bible, 
comprise the whole of what John has related. It is a plain 
straight forward account of a very simple intelligible train 
of events. There are no labyrinths of historical truth to 
trace out—no perplexed involutions of circumstances to Un- 
ravel. Consequently, when you consider that John, by the 
testimony of all tradition, as well as that of the gospel history, 
was a member of the household of Christ—admitted into his 
most unreserved and affectionate intercourse—the disciple 
whom he specially loved—who accompanied him in all his 
journeyings, followed him into his retirements, stood beneath 
his cross, and was a constant companion of the other disci- 
ples, and a witness of their actions—you will readily grant 
that John must have possessed all desirable opportunities of 
knowing, and must actually have known the gospel history 
so perfectly as to be fully competent to write an accurate 
account. 1 shall therefore refrain from any further remarks 


LECTURE IV. 107 


upon this branch of the argument, and shall pass to the 
second, in entire confidence that I leave no mind in any 
reasonable doubt of the adequateness of our historian’s 
knowledge. 

The second and the main question to be pursued is this: 
Have we reason to rely with implicit confidence upon the 
honesty of this historian? Believing him to have known 
enough to relate the truth, may we also believe that he was 
too honest to relate any thing but the truth? This is a fair 
and plain question. Prove the negative, and John’s history 
must be given up. Prove the affirmative, and.it “is worthy of 
all acceptation.” We begin the argument for the affirmative. 

Ii. There is abundant evidence that the writers of the 
gospel history were too honest to relate any thing but truth. 

We will apply, in the first place, to the history itself. 
There are certain characteristic marks of historical honesty, 
which can hardly be counterfeited to any extent, and always 
produce a favourable impression. ‘Take up the history 
written by St. John. I call your attention to the obvious 
fact that ; 

Ist. Its narrative is in a very high degree circumstantial. 
A false witness will not need to be cautioned against the 
introduction of many minute circumstances into his statement. 
The more he connects it with the particulars of time, and 
place, and persons, so as to locate his facts and bring in 
living men as associated with them, the more does he multi- 
ply the probability of detection. He gives the cross-examina- 
tion every advantage. It would be impossible for a false 
statement, abounding in such details, and at the same time 
exciting general interest in the neighbourhood where, and 
soon after, they are alleged to have occurred, to escape 
exposure. Consequently, when we take up a narrative thus 
minutely circumstantial, and which we are sure did excite 
among all classes, where its events are located, the very 
highest and most scrutinizing interest, and that, too, within 


108 LECTURE IV. 


a short time after the period to which the events are referred ; 
we always feel impressed with a strong persuasion that the 
writer had the consciousness of truth and the fearlessness of 
honesty. It is evident that he had no disposition, and there- 
fore no cause, to shun the closest investigation. On the 
other hand, if you take up any books professing to be histories 
of events within the reach and investigation of those among 
whom they were first published, but yet in a great measure 
untrue, you will find a great deficiency of such minute 
details of time, place, and persons, as would serve to test 
their faithfulness. Compare them with the histories of the 
Peloponnesian and Gallic wars, by Thucydides and Julius 
Cesar, and you will see directly how strong a feature of 
true narrative, in distinction from whatever is in a great 
degree invented, is a circumstantial detail of minute par- 
ticulars. 

Generality is the cloak of fiction. Minuteness is the 
natural manner of truth, in proportion to the importance 
and interest of the subject. Such is the precise manner and 
continual evidence of the honesty of St. John. His history 
is full of the most minute circumstances of time, place, and 
persons. Does he record, for example, the resuscitation of 
Lazarus? He tells the name of the village, and describes 
the particular spot where the event occurred. He gives the 
names of some of the principal individuals who were present; 
mentions many ,unbelieving Jews as eye-witnesses ; states 
the precise object for which they had come to the place ; 
what they did and said; the time the body had been buried; 
how the sepulchre was constructed and closed; the impres- 
sion which the event made upon the Jews; how they were 
divided in opinion in consequence of it; the particular ex- 
pressions of one whose name is given; the subsequent 
conduct of the Jews in regard to Lazarus. This, you 
perceive, is being very circumstantial. It is only a specimen 
of the general character of St. John’s Gospel. It looks 


>, *. > oe 


LECTURE IV. 109 


very much as if the writer was not afraid of any thing the 
people of Bethany, or the survivors of those who had been 
present at the tomb of Lazarus, or the children of any of 
them, might have to say with regard to the resurrection. 
Now, when you consider that John’s history was widely 
circulated while many were yet living, who, had these events 
never been, in Bethany, must have known it; and among a 
people, who, in addition to every facility, had every desire to 
find out the least departure from truth, I think you will 
acknowledge that the circumstantial character of this book 
is very strong evidence that the author must have written in 
the confidence of truth. 

2d. Another striking evidence, to the same point, is seen 
in this, that the author exhibits no consciousness of narra- 
ting any thing, about which, as a matter of notorious fact, 
there was the smallest doubt. He takes no pains, evinces 
no thought of attempting, to convince his reader of the 
truth of what he relates. On the contrary, the whole 
narrative is conducted with the manner and aspect of one 
who takes for granted the entire notoriety of his statements. 
He comes before the public as one familiarly known, needing 
no account of himself or of his pretensions to universal 
confidence. He goes straight forward with his story, de- 
livering the least and the most wonderful relations in the © 
same simple and unembarrassed manner of ease and confi- 
dence, which nothing but an assurance of unimpeachable 
consistency can explain. Nothing is said to account for 
what might seem inexplicable; to defend what would 
probably be cavilled at; to anticipate objections which one, 
feeling himself on questionable ground, would naturally 
look for. The writer seems to be conscious that, with 
regard to those for whom especially he wrote, all this were 
needless. He is willing to commit his simple statement 
alone, undefended, unvarnished, into the hands of’ friend 


or foe. 
QG* 


110 LECTURE IV. 


Nothing is more remarkable in this connexion than that, 
while he could not have been ignorant that he was relating 
many very extraordinary and wonderful events, he shows 
no wonder in his own mind, and seems to expect no wonder 
among his readers. 'This looks exceedingly like one who 
writes, not of extraordinary events, just contrived in his 
own imagination, but of extraordinary events which; what- 
ever the wonder they excited when first known, are now 
perfectly notorious, not only to himself, but to all his 
readers. It is one thing to relate a series of astonishing 
occurrences which we feel are perfectly new to the readers, 
and a very different thing to relate the same to those who 
have long since been familiarly acquainted with their promi- 
nent particulars, and desire only a more circumstantial and 
confidential account. In the former case, the writer would 


naturally, and almost necessarily, betray in his style and 


the whole texture of his statement an expectation of the 
wonder and probable incredulity of his readers. In the 
latter, he would deliver his narrative as if he were thinking 
only of an accurate detail of truth, without particular refe- 
rence to whether it was astonishing, or the contrary. ‘Thus 


it is with St. John. There is no appearance of his having 


felt as if any of his Gospel would be new, or excite any 
new emotions of wonder in his readers. The marvellous 
works of Christ were, at that time, notorious. When first 
heard of, they excited universal astonishment. “His fame 
went abroad, and all the people were amazed.” But so 
much time had now elapsed, that emotions of wonder had 
subsided, under the influence of repetition and familiarity. 
In striking consistency with this is the whole aspect of 
St. John’s narrative. He goes directly forward in the rela- 
tion of events, in themselves exceedingly impressive and 
astonishing, exhibiting no sign of any astonishment in his 
own mind, anticipating none in his contemporaneous readers. 
How is this to be explained? One can discover no plausible 


a rege fetes sro 


LECTURE IV. 111 


explanation but in the supposition that he was conscious 
of recording events, with which, in their chief particulars, 
the public mind had been entirely familiarized. This may 
deservedly be considered a strong indication of truth. 

3d. I see another plain evidence, to the same point, in 
the minute accuracy which marks all the allusions of this 
narrative to the manners, customs, opinions, political events, 
and other circumstances of the times. The situation of 
Judea, in the time of the Saviour, was such as to bring 
it frequently under the eye of the profane writers of that 
age. From them we derive a great many particulars, 
illustrating the several modifications in the civil and religious 
institutions of the Jews, by their subjection to Rome. And 
thus we have a great many points of comparison between 
the gospel history and the other histories of the same times. 
The former contains innumerable references to the pecu- 
liarities then existing in the Jewish state—its laws, courts, 
punishments—as well as to the opinions, prejudices, and 
customs then prevailing. This was dangerous ground for 
the inventor of a story. The continual fluctuations in public 
affairs; the numerous and complex changes in the supreme 
officers of Judea and the neighbouring provinces; as well 
as in the boundaries and. character of their governments, 
within the period embraced in the gospel history, must have 
added greatly to the difficulty of an inventor of a narrative 
located in such circumstances, and filled with allusions 
to them. We havea Jewish historian of the same age, with 
which to confront the gospel history. Josephus has furnished 
us with a full and minute account of those internal affairs 
of the Jews, both civil and religious, to which allusions are 
made in the gospel history. It would be evidently very far 
beyond the limits of a lecture, to attempt a proof that all 
the minutest allusions in our sacred history are not only 
uncontradicted, but wherever the same things are spoken of, 
are positively confirmed by the secular authority to which 


112 LECTURE IV. 


we have referred. But we assert it asa fact, well known to 
every student of the gospel history, and of which any who 
have the disposition to examine the question, may easily be 
satisfied. Now it seems to me it would have been next to 
impossible for the inventor of a story, exciting such general 
and intense interest, branching out into such circumstantial 
details, and connected, at so many points, with the pecu- 
liarities of the times, to tread upon ground so covered with 
snares, without being caught. 

Ath. Hitherto we have directed your attention to the 
gospel history as furnished by only one of its witnesses. 
But suppose you should unexpectedly discover in the ruins 
of Herculaneum three distinct writings, heretofore entirely 
unknown, but containing the most satisfactory evidence of 
authenticity, and evidently written in the first century of 
christianity, by three several and independent authors, each 
possessed of the best opportunities of knowledge. And 
suppose that in every one of them there should be found 
a history of Christ and his Gospel; what an uncommon 
opportunity would it seem of trying the accuracy of this 
book of St. John. Even if these three newly discovered 
authors were bad men; yet if their statements should agree 
with his, it would determine the accuracy of his history. 
But if it should appear that they were all good men, how 
much more complete would be their confirmation. Suppose, 
however, it should turn out that these three writers were 
not only good men, but, like St. John, disciples of Christ 
and ministers of his Gospel, what effect would their concur- 
rent testimony then have upon his accuracy? Would it be 
diminished in conclusiveness by the discovery of their 
christian character? I believe that, in the minds of multi- 
tudes, it would; but most unjustly. Precisely the contrary 
should be the consequence. If four of the chief officers in 
Napoleon’s staff had published memoirs of his life, I venture 
to say that the concurrence of their several statements, 


LECTURE IV. 113 


instead of having its evidence weakened, because they were 
all attached to Napoleon and admitted to his domestic circle, 
would be greatly strengthened, in your estimation, by that 
very circumstance, inasmuch as it would ensure the accuracy 
of their knowledge, without impeaching their integrity. 
But some seem to suppose that the laws regulating the force 
of testimony are all changed as soon as the matter of fact, 
in question, is removed from the department of profane to 
that of sacred history. 

How much has been made of the testimony of the Roman 
historian, Tacitus, to some of the chief facts of the gospel 
history. It is the testimony of a Heathen, and, therefore, 
Supposed to be incomparably valuable. Now suppose that 
Tacitus the Heathen had not only been persuaded of the 
facts he has related, but had been so deeply impressed with 
the belief of them as to have renounced heathenism and 
embraced the christian faith, and then published the history 
we now possess—who does not know that, with the infidel, 
and with many a believer, his testimony would have greatly 
suffered in practical force? No reason for this can be given, 
except that we have a vague idea that a Christian in the 
cause of christianity must be an interested witness. To be 
sure he is interested. But is his testimony the less valuable 2 

A scientific man, bearing testimony to a phenomenon in 
al tory, is an interested witness, because he is de- 
lence, but his testimony is not the less valuable. 

1 man, bearing testimony to the character of another 
good man, is an interested witness, because he is the friend 
of virtue and of all good men, but his testimony is not the 
less valuable. In this, and no other sense, were the original 
disciples interested witnesses. They were interested in 
christianity, only so far as they believed it true. Suppose 
them to have known it to be untrue, and you cannot imagine 
the least jot or tittle of interest they could have had in it, 
In such a case, on the contrary, the current of all their 


114 LECTURE IV. 


interests and prepossessions would run directly and power- 
fully in opposition to christianity. This then, being all the 
way in which they can be regarded as interested, the force » 
of their testimony, so far from being in the least impaired, 
is greatly enhanced by the consideration. ‘The bare fact 
that any primitive writer, bearing witness to events related 
by St. John, was not a Heathen, or a Jew, but a Christian, 
is the very thing that should be regarded as completing his 
testimony: Is the evidence of Tacitus, who relates such 
events, but remained a Heathen, any thing like so strong ; 
as if we could say, it is the evidence of Tacitus, who was a 
Heathen, but believed those events so firmly that he became 
a Christian? If a man speak well to me of the virtues of 
a certain medicine, but does not use it himself, is his opinion 
half so weighty as if he were to receive it into his own 
vitals, and administer it in his family? Would it be 
reasonable, in this case, to refuse his testimony, because you 
might denominate him an interested witness 2 

I have thus enlarged upon this head, because I am going 
to present you with the concurrent testimony of seven 
ancient writers, in confirmation of the accuracy of the gos- 
pel history, as given by St. John. 'They are writers whose 
testimony has this particular value, that, whereas once they 
were Jews and enemies to the gospel, they we e afterwards 
converted to its belief and service ; became Cl 
as Christians wrote, and gave every practical ey 
what they wrote they believed. Of these, three” com. 
regular histories of the life and labours of Christ, similar in 
object to that of John. One of them, beside a memoir of 
Christ, has carried on the subsequent history of christianity, 
under the name of the Acts of the Apostles. Four others 
composed various letters to different individuals, or bodies of 
Christians, in which they allude continually to events related 
in the narratives of the former. Now all these several 
writings are perfectly independent, each of the rest. We 


LECTURE IV. 115 


have them bound up in one volume, and are apt to overlook 
the fact that they are as independent productions as if they 
had never been in contact with one another. Written by 
various authors in widely remote countries, in all parts of 
the first century from its forty-first to its ninety-seventh year, 
in as many different styles and methods as they had writers ; 
these productions cannot, with the least reason, be suspected 
of having been composed in concert. Of the competency of 
the knowledge of each writer, we can have no more doubt 
than in the case of St. John. In each of their histories we 
see the same circumstantiality, the same striking internal 
characteristics of honesty as we have already noticed in that 
of the other evangelist. Now, let us divest ourselves of the 
delusion so apt to arise out of the thought that they are chris- 
tian witnesses ; and as if this were a question as to the truth 
of a history of Pythagoras, by one of his disciples, and these . 
other writers were also contemporaneous disciples of Pytha- 
goras, let us bring them face to face, and see how they agree. 
Here, then, we have four independent histories of the life of 
Christ, all of them by his contemporaries, besides the other 
documents we have mentioned. Now, “it is an extraordi- 
nary and singular fact that no history since the commence- 
ment of the world has been written by so eae a number of 


appeatatlearalleled We have therefore, an neice 
opportunity of coming at the truth. We compare our seve- 
ral histories. If we find them contradictory, our confidence 
declines. If they bear a systematic, particular, and yet com- 
prehensive resemblance, we must suspect collusion. But we 
perceive neither the contradiction nor the resemblance. "We 
see great variety. What one relates, another sometimes 


. 
* Wilson’s Lectures. 


: 
: 
\ 


116 LECTURE IV. 


leaves out. They differ in arrangement, in minuteness, and 
sometimes as to fact, in such manner that the reader might 
be alarmed at first view, lest there should be found a contra- 
diction ; while such is the actual agreement, that all difficul- 
ties vanish before a strict investigation ; and, down to the 
utmost minuteness of statement, their mutual support is 
undiminished by a single opposing representation. ‘The 
attempts of infidels to make out the appearance of a con- 
tradiction, show to what shifts they have been driven, and 
how accurate is the concurrence. Now this unfailing agree- 
ment of four several, independent, and contemporaneous 
historians—each so circumstantial—each so full of allusions 
to the events, and institutions, and customs of the times— 
and none contradicted by any evidence whatever—is as 
convincing an evidence of the honest accuracy of all, as 
any mind should require. Were the gospel history untrue, 
such evidence would have been morally impossible. It is 
peculiar to that history. No other can plead it, to any simi- 
lar extent. And here we feel that we might safely leave the 
question of credibility. But there are two or three points 
remaining, which must not be left unnoticed. 

Should [ occupy enough of your time to take any thing 
like a full view of the whole of this argument, I should aie 
introduce the uncontradicted acknowledgment of Jewi 
Heathen enemies of the gospel, to the purity and 
of the primitive disciples of Christ ; the strong ey 1 
their having possessed these virtues, exhibited in the 
larly modest and humble manner in which the evangelists 
speak of themselves, never concealing or excusing what 
might make exceedingly against them, but always mention- 
ing what might seem humiliating or honourable to them- 
selves in the same plain, simple way as they relate any 
other matter of fact. We should also introduce the variety 


of incidental confirmations obtained from profane writers, 


and from coins, of various particulars contained in the gog- 


LECTURE IV. 117 


pel history. We should cite especially the testimony of 
Tacitus to the time and the fact of the Saviour’s crucifixion ; 
as well as the records called the Acts of Pilate, bearing wit- 
ness to the same event, and appealed to by early christian 
writers as notoriously laid up among the papers of the 
Roman senate. But since we have not room for every 
thing, we must dispense with these particulars.* 

Let it be remembered that we are still employed upon the 
honesty of the writers of the gospel history. Suppose, then, 
for a moment, that they were not honest in their statements— 
that they knew they were endeavouring to pass off a down- 
right imposition upon the world. We will not speak of 
their intellect in such a case, but of their motive. Now, it 
would be difficult to suppose that any man could devote 
himself to the diligent promotion of such an imposture 
without some very particular motive. Much more that, 
without such motive, the eight various writers concerned in 
the New Testament should have united in the plan. What 
motive could they have had? If impostors, they were bad 
men; their motive, therefore, must have been bad. It must 
have been to advance themselves, either in wealth, honour, 
or power. ‘Take either, or all of these objects, and here, 
then, is the case you have. Four historians, with four other 
writers of the New Testament—all, but one of them, poor 
unlearned men—undertake to persuade the world that certain 
great events took place before the eyes of thousands in Judea 
and Galilee, which none in those regions ever saw or heard 
of, and they know, perfectly well, did never occur. They see 
beforehand that the attempt to make Jews and Heathens be- 
_ lieve these things will occasion to themselves all manner of dis- 
grace and persecution. Nevertheless, so fond are they of their 
contrivance, that though it is bitterly opposed by all the habits, 
prejudices, dispositions, and philosophy—all the powers and 
Se AL AL LIU ARNG RRR acl i 


* See Horne’s Introd. vol. i. 


118 LECTURE Iv. 


institutions of all people—they submit cheerfully to misery 
and contempt-—they take joyfully the spoiling of their goods— 
they willingly endure to be counted as fools and the offscour- 
ing of all things—yea, they march thankfully to death out 
of a mere desire to propagate a story which they all know 
is a downright fabrication. At every step of their progress 
they see and feel, that instead of any worldly advantage, 
they are daily loading themselves with ruin. At any moment 
they can turn about and renounce their effort, and retrieve 
their losses; and yet, with perfect unanimity, these eight, 
with thousands of others equally aware of the deception, 
persist most resolutely in their career of ignominy and. 
suffering. Not the slightest confession, even under torture 
and the strong allurements of reward, escapes the lips of 
any. Not the least hesitation is shown when to each is 
offered the choice of recantation or death. He that can 


believe such a case of fraud and folly as this, can believe ~ 


any thing. He believes a miracle infinitely more difficult 
of credit than any in the gospel history. I charge him 
with the most superstitious and besotted credulity. In 
getting to such a belief, he has to trample over all the 
laws of nature and of reasoning. ‘Then on what an un- 
assailable rock does the honesty of the writers of the New 
Testament stand, if it can be attacked only at such sacrifices. 
How evident it is, not only that they could have had no 
motive to deceive, but that in all their self-devotion and 
sacrifices they gave the strongest possible evidence of having 
published what they solemnly believed was true. * 

Now, if I have produced satisfactory proof from all the 
unquestionable marks of honesty in the gospel history ; 


* “We cannot make use (says Hume) of a more convincing argument” 
(in proof of honesty) “than to prove that the actions ascribed to any persons 
are contrary to the course of nature, and that no human motives, in such 
circumstances, could ever induce them to sucha conduct.” Philosophical 
Essays. 


LECTURE IV. 119 


from the concurrence of profane historians with many of 
its facts; from their being contradicted by none ; from the 
unprecedented harmony of eight independent writers in 
their minutest events and allusions; from the impossibility 
of supposing any motive to deception, and from the sacrifices 
the apostles endured in the promotion of christianity ; if 
from these sources I have satisfactorily shown that the 
writers of the gospel history could not have intended to 
record any thing but truth—then, having previously ascer 
tained that they must have known whether what they wrote 
was true or false, we have those two requisites which ensure 
the credibility of any history—knowledge and honesty. This 
shuts up the question. But it is not the whole strength of 
the argument. A question may be shut up and locked; 
but then it may have bolts and bars besides. The truth of 
the gospel history is not only sealed, but sealed seven-fold. 
ti has all the testimony that could possibly have been 
expected, in the nature of things, from the enemies of 
christianity. It would have been unreasonable to expect 
that a Heathen or Jew would come forward with a detailed 
statement to acknowledge the events narrated by the 
evangelists. We have not this; but we have much better. 
We have the confession of the whole nation of Jews and of 
all the Greeks to the same point. None ever ventured in 
any publication to deny the statements of the evangelists. 
Unquestionably they would have done it, every where, had 
they been able. When Luke published in Jerusalem, that 
a man lame from the birth was healed by Peter and John, 
while sitting, begging, at the gate of the temple, and that a 
great multitude came together on account of the wonderful 
deed; had the Jews of Jerusalem been able to deny it, 
would their persecuting enmity have permitted them to be 
silent? Be it remembered that the gospel history was pub 
lished in the places where its events are said to have 
occurred—in the lifetime of many enemies who are said to 


120 LECTURE Iv. 


have seen t em. Now it is certain that no adversaries, 
either in Judea, or Greece, or Rome, rested their opposition 
te the gospel, in any degree, on the denial of these events. 
What is the consequence? They could not deny them. 
What is the meaning of this silence? Being interpreted, 
it is nothing less than a universal testimony from all Jews 
and Heathens, who were capable of knowing any thing of 
the matter, that these things were so. But they did not stop 
here. ‘Tacitus, the Roman historian, positively asserts some 
of the chief events of the gospel.* Celsus, a bitter anta- 
gonist of christianity, in the second century ;+ Porphyry, a 
learned as well as earnest opposer, in the third;{ and 
Julian, the apostate emperor, in the next century;§ all 
acknowledge not only the authenticity of the New ‘Testament 
books, but, so far as they refer to them, the historical correct- 
ness of their narratives, even as to the most extraordinary 
particulars, not excluding the miracles of Christ. But we 
have stronger witness still. 

About thirty-two years after the crucifixion, took place the 
first Roman persecution, under Nero. 'The number of 
Christians discovered in the one city of Rome, and con- 
demned, is called by Tacitus “a vast multitude.” || Of 
course they must have been exceedingly numerous in all 
other places taken together. These but a few years before 
were all either Jews or Heathens. Many resided in Jerusa- 
lem, Capernaum, Antioch, Philippi, Ephesus, Corinth, &c. 
By the time of this persecution, all the Gospels, but one, as 
well as the Acts of the apostles, had been published. The 
events recorded in these books are said to have taken place 
before the eyes of the people of the cities just mentioned. 
It was an easy thing for those people to ascertain whether 
they, or their neighbours, or parents, had seen them. What 


_ 


* Lardner, iii. 611. + Ib. iv. 121—130; 133, 4. +b. 234—8. §Ib. 341, 2. 
i Tac. Annal., lib. xv. c. 44. Lardner, iii. 610—14. 


ee 


LECTURE IV. 121 


did they do? They came forward in great multitudes ; 
they threw off judaism ; threw off paganism; espoused the 
gospel, and suffered unto death, sooner than renounce it. This 
was but thirty-three years after the events recorded of Christ; 
it was in the life-time of Paul. I say, therefore, that every 
Christian of those days was a witness—the strongest 
witness—far more impressive in his attestation than any 
enemy could have been, to the shining, powerful truth of 
the gospel history. “We are compassed about,” therefore, 
“with a great cloud of witnesses ;? witnesses who did not 
just acknowledge these things, and still remain what they 
were before; but witnesses adding to their acknowledgment 
the testimony of their conversion; the evidence of their 
lives, which were wholly devoted to these things; the seals 
of ten thousand martyrdoms, endured solely on account of 
their perfect assurance of these things. 

Now consider a moment, and see the utter impossibility 
that the gospel history should have gained such currency 
for a single year, had. it not been notoriously true. In about 
eight years after the crucifixion, Matthew publishes his 
Gospel among the Jews. He tells the people of Jerusalem 
that, only eight years from that time, while a great multitude 
of them were witnessing the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus, 
there was darkness over the whole land, from twelve to three 
o'clock in the afternoon, and “the veil of the temple was 
rent in twain, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.” 
Suppose all this to have been a fabrication ; would Jerusa- 
lem have held her peace? could a book of such barefaced 
untruth have lived an hour ? 

The book of the Acts of the Apostles was published about 
thirty years after the ascension of Christ, and was immedi- 
ately circulated among the churches, and open to the perusal 
of the enemies of christianity. It is related in the second 
chapter of that work, that on the day of Pentecost, soon 


after the death of Christ when a great multitude, collected 
10* 


122 LECTURE IV. 


from all parts of the earth, were assembled at Jerusalem, a 
deep impression of astonishment was produced on the public 
mind by a rumour of certain miraculous events in the com- 
pany of the apostles, so that “the multitude came together 
and were confounded, because that every man heard them 
speak in his own language.” Parthians, and Medes, and 
Klamites, and Cretes, and Arabians; dwellers in all coun- 
tries; men of every speech, were amazed at hearing those 
Galileans, who were well known to have learned no other 
tongue than that of Palestine, speaking in all varieties of 
foreign languages, the wonderful works of God. Such is the 
relation in the Acts of the Apostles. How could a writer, in 
his senses, attempt to pass it upon his readers had it not been 
notorious that such things had actually occurred? 'The 
lapse of thirty years could not have so obliterated every 
recollection of that feast; or so swept the world of surviving 
witnesses, as to prevent the certainty, that wherever this book 
should circulate it would meet with persons capable of 
remembering or of ascertaining whether these things were so. 
Had not the fact of the apostles having spoken in the pre- 
sence of thousands, in various tongues, been undeniable, wit- 
nesses innumerable would have arisen against the book that 
related it. Had no such event occurred, the Acts of the 
Apostles could have gone into no part of the world without 
finding those who would stand up and declare that they were 
at the feast referred to, and saw nothing and heard nothing 
of the marvellous things declared by its author. I say, 
therefore, the fact that the gospel history was received, loved, 
and read, every where among Christians; that it has out- 
lived all the withering of time, and all the weapons of 
enemies ; that Jews could not gainsay it, nor Heathens resist 
it; that eighteen centuries of scrutiny and trial have only 
added new assurance to its truth, is one which reduces the 
supposition of imposture to a perfect and ridiculous absurd- 
ity. Therefore was it not in the power of such modern 


LECTURE IV. 123 


infidels as Hobbes, and Chub, and Bolingbroke, to deny the 
point in question. 'The latter, as an example of the others, 
speaking of John and Matthew, acknowledges that “they 
recorded the doctrines of Christ in the very words in which 
he taught them; and they were careful to mention the sev- 
eral occasions on which he delivered them to his disciples or 
others. If, therefore, Plato and Xenophon tell us, with 
a good deal of certainty, what Socrates taught, these two 
evangelists seem to tell us, with much more, what the Sav- 
iour taught, and commanded them to teach.” 

Here I think we may safely leave the question of credi- 
bility. So conclusive and certain have seemed to my mind 
the several consecutive arguments to which you have listened, 
that instead of feeling at each step as if any candid hearer 
would wait for additional proof, I have felt not unfrequently 
as if I were tiring your attention with an unnecessary accu- 
mulation. Why this heaping of argument upon argument, 
one may say, when from the very outset of the question, 
from the certain authenticity of the Gospels, united with 
their internal evidence, we have a proof of credibility with 
which any rational mind should be perfectly satisfied? We - 
acknowledge the reasonableness of the inquiry. If the 
history under consideration related to the life of Alexander 
the Great and his generals, instead of that of the meek and 
lowly Jesus and his apostles, who would think it necessary 
to go into all this detail of evidence to establish its truth ? 
That it contained no internal marks of dishonesty ; that it 
was uncontradicted by contemporaneous writers and by 
other histories of the same times; that it had been received, 
ever since, as a true account; would be considered an ample 
warrant of its historical correctness. Few, if any, profane 
histories, can produce more positive proof of credibility than 
this. Try them by the scale on which the gospel history is 
measured ; require them to present one half of the weight 
of evidence which infidels demand, and Christians bring in 


124 LECTURE IV. 


support of the sacred narrative ; and you must exclude them 
from all claim to the confidence oftheir readers. We might 
speak of the unfairness of requiring so much more in proof 
of a history because its character is sacred, and its facts are 
connected with religion. I see not that the inferences arising 
from an event, are entitled to any influence in changing the 
amount of evidence necessary to its proof. Whether an 
evangelist be worthy of dependence, when he relates the 
works of Jesus, is a question of testimony to be determined 
by the same degree of proof as should satisfy us as to the 
accuracy and honesty of any other writer, on any other sub- 
ject of history. But we have no disposition to complain 
that so much has been demanded in evidence of the gospel 
narrative. It has only served to quicken the investigations 
of the friends of truth, and to exhibit, with a more impres- 
sive assurance, those great events, on which all that is 
precious in a Christian’s faith is founded. It has showed, 
not only how amply, but how wonderfully the God of truth 
and grace has made the anchor of our hope to be sure and 
steadfast. It teaches how, in the hands of Divine Wisdom, 
the wrath of man is made subsidiary to the praise of God; 
how the fiery darts of the wicked are not only broken against 
the shield of faith, but made the means of increasing the 
light by which the Christian is guided, and often of carrying 
back confusion into the ranks of the enemy. It should lead 
the believer to adore, with admiring gratitude, the goodness 
of Him, who, for the sake of those that love Him, causes all 
the schemes and assaults of unbelievers to work together 
for good ; making it more and more manifest, by the defeat 
of every new attack, that this is “the true light”—“the 
shining light, which shineth more and more unto the 
perfect day.” : 

Had we time, or were it needful, to enter upon a particular 
view of the authenticity and credibility of the Old Testa- 
ment volume, this would be the place for the argument. 


LECTURE IV. 125 


But we have room only to advert to it. The connexion 
between the truth of the christian scriptures and that of the 
Jewish is so obvious and essential; the dispensation of 
Christ so continually assumes the divine authority of that 
of Moses, and is so evidently built on its foundations; the 
writings of the apostles so frequently quote and refer to the 
law and the prophets, as authentic, credible, and inspired 
scriptures ; the argument for the books of the Old Testa- 
ment is so parallel, in its mode and means, to that for the 
books of the New; and the cavils of sceptics, in relation to 
the former, are so similar in objection, principle, and reason- 
ing, to those with which they assail the latter; that in hav- 
ing established the authenticity and credibility of the one, we 
may be fairly said to have done the same, in outline, for the 
character of the other. Certain we are, that one who is 
intelligently convinced of the authenticity and credibility of 
the New Testament, will not halt between two opinions as 
to the writings of Moses and the prophets, but will read 
them as assuredly the writings of those whose names they 
bear; and deserving, in relation to all matters of fact, the 
character of credible scriptures. 


126 LECTURE VY. 


LECTURE VV. 
MIRACLES. 


Our last lecture was on the CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL 
HISTORY. Ina previous one, we ascertained the AUTHEN- 
ticity of the books in which it is contained. If. the 
evidence adduced in proof of both these fundamental articles 
appeared as satisfactory to the hearers, as to the speaker, we 
are then prepared to open the New Testament with the 
assurance that the books it contains were written by those 
original disciples whose names they bear; and that we may 
confidently depend on the historical correctness of their 
statements. The seals, therefore, of the volume are now 
unloosed. Immediately on inspecting the contents, it appears 
that the grand and continual reference is to Jesus Christ, as 
a Teacher and Saviour sent from God, to communicate 
personally, and by his apostles, a revelation of truth and 
duty to man. This revelation, the New Testament professes 
to contain. Now, the grand question is, what are the evi- 
dences that the religion contained in the New Testament ts 
a divine revelation ? 

When an ambassador from a foreign power presents him- 
self at our seat of government, charged with certain commu 
nications from his sovereign, he first exhibits his credentials 
of appointment. These being satisfactory, whatever he may 
communicate, in his official character, is received with as 
much reliance as if it were heard from the lips of his sove- 
reign himself. It is treated as a revelation of the mind or 
will of that sovereign. In the New Testament we read that 
our Lord Jesus Christ appeared among men as an ambassa- 


a 


LECTURE V. 127 


dor from God, charged with certain important proposals to 
the world. Before we can be justified in receiving them asa 
divine revelation, we must know the credentials of the ambas- 
sador ; we must have sufficient evidence that he was sent of 
God. Furnish this, and we are bound to receive his commu- 
nications, as confidently as if they should be heard directly 
from the throne of the Most High. Thus the Jews said to 
him: “ What sign showest thou, that we may see and believe 
thee? What dost thou work?* The Saviour, admitting 
the propriety of the demand, appealed to his works, as his 
credentials. “The works that I do, they bear witness of me.” 
On another occasion, he called up his miracles. “The blind 
(said he) receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up.”+ As if 
he had said: “Such works can only be done by the direct 
and supernatural interposition of the power of Ged. ‘They 
are done at my word and will. They are therefore a perfect 
attestation that God is with me, and that my claim to your 
confidence as His ambassador is true.” Nicodemus under- 
stood this, and expressed no other than the plain dictate of 
common sense, when he said to Jesus : “ We know that thou 
art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these mira- 
cles which thou doest except God be with him.”t 'The 
credentials of the apostles, as subordinate agents of divine 
revelation, are expressed in like manner. “God also bear- 
ing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with 
divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost.”§ None can 
question the absolute certainty of such credentials. This 
has been acknowledged even by the most famous advocates 
of infidelity. Woolston says: “I believe it will be granted 
on all hands that the restoring a person indisputably dead to 
life is a stupendous miracle, and that two or three such mira- 
cles, well attested and credibly reported, are enough to 


* John, vi. 30—ii. 18. +t Mat.xi.5. fF John, iii. 2. § Heb. ii. 4. 


128 . LECTURE V. 


conciliate the belief that the author of them was a divine 
agent, and invested with the power of God.”* Make good, 
therefore, the evidence that the Saviour and his apostles 
wrought miracles in attestation of their divine mission, and 
the christian religion, as contained in the New Testament, 
and taught by them, must be a divine revelation. 

Our way, therefore, is plain. We must inquire into the 
evidence on which it can be established, that the Saviour 
and his apostles did work miracles. 'To this inquiry we 
should proceed immediately, were it not for the peculiar 


circumstances which meet us inthe way. The adversaries - 


of the gospel have had wit enough to see that either the 
evidence of miracles must be overthrown, or they must 
surrender the contest. Unable to meet. the direct and 
abounding testimony by which the wonderful works of 
Christ and his apostles are proved, they have taken position 
and entrenched themselves upon the advanced and desperate 
ground of the insufficiency of any testimony to prove a 
miracle. ‘Thus have we a redoubt in our way, command- 
ing the whole field of controversy, which, though easily 
carried when properly assailed, would be of great damage, 
if left in our rear. The present lecture will be occu- 
pied, therefore, with the discussion of certain preliminary 
subjects, anticipating a direct application to the evidence 
of miracles, in our next. We commence with the following 
proposition. : ) 

I. There is nothing unreasonable or improbable in the 
idea of a miracle being wrought in proof of a divine reve- 
lation. I know not but that all persons, of ordinary infor- 
mation, have a sufficiently correct idea of what is meant by 
a miracle, without the aid of a definition. Noone would 
mistake the restoration of sight to the blind, by the use of 
human skill, however wonderful it might be considered, for 


* Scheme of Literal Prophecy, pp. 321, 322. 


. 
EE ——— eS ee ee ee ee ee 


LECTURE V. 129 


a miracle. Noone could mistake the sudden communication 
of sight to one born blind at the mere word of another, 
without any intervening cause, for any thing else thana 
miracle. The former result, though astonishing, would be 
according to the common course of nature, or to what are 
called the laws of nature. The latter would be beyond, or 
different from those laws. One would be a natural, the 
other a supernatural event, or a miracle.” 

Now the idea of a revelation from God, and the idea of a 
miracle to attest the divine commission of those who make 
it, are essentially connected. If one or more individuals be 
sent to communicate the revelation, they must prove their 
mission by some credentials. What can their credentials be 
but miracles? The necessity of these will be evident from 
a little consideration. ‘They can appeal to but three sorts of 
proof; the internal excellence and fitness of their communi- 
cations; their own integrity and judgment ; and the miracu- 
lous works attendant on their ministry. With regard to the 
two former, it is manifest that, in the most favourable circum- 
stances, they would need too much time, and evidence, and 
discrimination, for their own establishment; and would 
always remain of a character too uncertain to permit their 
being used with any effect in proof of a divine revelation. 
They would answer well as auxiliaries; but would require 
something of a much more positive nature to sustain the 
chief burden of proof. 'The claim to be received as a mes- 
senger of God, for the purpose of making a revelation to the 
world, could never be substantiated on such grounds. Evi- 
dence is needed which all minds may appreciate. It must 
be something that has only to be seen, to be understood and 
acknowledged. When a plenipotentiary presents himself at 
the seat of government, intrusted with certain communica- 
tions from a foreign power, of great importance on both 


* See ib seer i. 167. 


130 LECTURE V. 


sides, and requiring to be immediately acted upon, it would 
not answer for him to plead, in evidence of his delegated 
authority, that his personal integrity is unimpeached, and 
his communications are such as might be expected from his 
government. ‘The time for action would be lost while such 
proof was being proved. He must exhibit credentials which 
carry on their face the direct evidence of his commission. 
He must show the broad seal of his sovereign stamped upon 
their hand writing. So must an ambassador from God. 
What then can he show but miracles? What else can 
set to his communications the seal of God? “In fact, the 
very idea of a revelation includes that of miracles. A reve- 
lation cannot be made but by a miraculous interposition of 
Deity.”* 

So that the idea of miracles can be unreasonable or 
improbable only so far as it is unreasonable or improbable 
that God should commission one or more persons to make a 
revelation of his truth and will. 'That such a revelation 
was needed in the world at the time when Christ appeared, 
can be denied only by asserting that the additional light now 
possessed, in consequence of the gospel, is superfluous and 
useless. This denial can only be maintained by showing 
that the world, sunk in idolatry, vice, and darkness, as it 
was universally before the gospel came, had all the know- 
ledge of God, and all the assurance of his will, and of the 
retributions of 2 future state, that were important to its hap- 
piness. A matter of proof which I suppose no one here 
imagines to be possible. Then if it cannot be shown that 
a revelation was not needed; it cannot be proved that the 
idea of a revelation, from a God of infinite goodness and 
mercy, was either unreasonable or improbable. But a reve- 
lation can be attested only by miracles. They are insepara- 
ble. Consequently, in the idea of miracles being wrought 


baer, $0 tt rrr Ne 8 Oe ee ee 


* Gregory’s Letters. 


LECTURE V. 131 


in proof of divine revelation, there is nothing either unrea- 
sonable or improbable. | 

It would not be difficult to show, that in the circum- 
stances of the world at the christian era, a revelation was 
not only probable but necessary; and, by manifest conse- 
quence, that miracles, as its necessary attestations, were also 
not only probable but necessary. Having thus endeavoured 
to show that there is no presumptive evidence against a 
miracle, except as it lies equally against a revelation; and 
that the one is probable, in proportion as the other may be 
expected ; let us proceed to our second proposition. 

IL. If miracles were wrought in attestation of the mission 
of Christ and his apostles, they can be rendered credible to 
us by no other evidence than that of testimony. There are 
various descriptions of evidence, as the evidence of sense— 
the evidence of mathematical demonstration—the evidence 
of testimony. Each of these has its own department of 
subjects. A question of morals cannot be demonstrated by 
mathematics, or proved by the senses. A question of his- 
torical fact can be settled only by testimony. It might as 
well be put to the tests of chymistry, as to have applied to it 
either the evidence of mathematical demonstration, or of the 
senses. 

Not only is there a separate department for each of these 
species of evidence; but each is sufficient, in its appropriate 
place, for the complete establishment of truth. By this I 
mean, that when the quantity of an angle is proved by 
mathematical demonstration, we have a result of no more 
practical confidence than when the existence of this house 
is proved by the senses, or that of the city of London is 
proved by testimony. Proof in either case is the foundation 
of entire belief. We are just as certain that such a man as 
Napoleon once lived, as that any proposition in geometry is 
true—though one is a matter of testimony, the other of 
demonstration. We are quite as sure that arsenic is poison- 


132 LECTURE V. 


ous, as that food is nutritious—though one is, to most of us 
at least, a matter of testimony only ; while the other is, to 
all, a matter of sense. We are perfectly certain of all these 
things. 

It is likely that some minds are led into erroneous notions 
of the comparative conclusiveness of testimony on one side, 
and that of mathematical demonstration and of the senses on 
the other, on account of the technical name by which the 
former is distinguished in philosophical discussions.” It is 
called probable evidence. It would seem to some as if, 


because probable, it must be less satisfactory than the other 


kinds ; since in common speech, what is merely probable is 
not certain. But in philosophical language, the word pro- 
bable is used, not in distinction from certain evidence, but 
simply from that which is sensible or demonstrative, without 
reference to the measure of certainty attached to it. T'hus, 
our belief that the sun will rise to-morrow, oF that we are all 
to die, or that London was once visited with a dreadful 
plague, is founded on what is called probable evidence ; 
though we should be suspected of lunacy did we question 
the propriety of acting upon it with perfect assurance. 
Such, then, being the sufficiency of testimony to convey a 
perfect assurance of any thing in its appropriate sphere, 
however distant in point of time or place; I return to the 
proposition that if miracles were wrought by Christ and his 
apostles, they can be rendered credible to us, of the nineteenth 
century, by no other evidence than that of testumony. Mathe- 
matical evidence is evidently inapplicable to the question. It 
is a matter of fact belonging to another century, and therefore 
intangible by sense. Nothing remains but testimony. This 
is perfectly appropriate to the question. If, therefore, the 
gospel miracles are true, they must be substantiated by tes- 
timony, or not at all. We proceed to the next proposition. 


* Stewart’s Phil. ii. p. 179. 


_ ECTURE IV. 133 


Ill. Miracles are capable of being proved by testimony. 
This I consider as true and obvious as that miracles are 
capable of being proved by the evidence of the senses. 
That a certain person was dead and buried yesterday; and 
that he is alive and walking the streets to-day ; the senses 
are perfectly competent to decide. I never heard of this 
being questioned. But if I and twenty others saw these 
facts, is there no way of making them credible to my neigh- 
bour who did not see them? ‘Will it be pretended, that if 
twenty men of unquestionable honesty and_ intelligence, 
should solemnly and by every means of conviction in their 
power, assure me that they saw the man dead, buried, and 
in corruption, I would have no sufficient reason to believe 
their assertion ? Will it be pretended, that if the same men 
should in the same way assure me, that subsequently they 
saw the same man alive, and conversed with him; I would 
have no reason to believe their assertion? I think there are 
none among us who could avoid belief in such a case. It 
would evidently be a case of miracle, believed on testimony ; 
and to maintain that it would be believed without reason, 
and that no conceivable addition of honest testimony could 
furnish reason for the belief of those two simple facts, that 
the man was dead yesterday and is alive to-day, would seem 
an absurdity too gross to be touched by argument. 

Here I should leave the mattter, confident in the common 
sense of my hearers, were it not that the very absurdity, in 
view, has been so mystified with the drugs of false phi- 
losophy, so disguised under the dress of logical forms and 
ceremonies, and so followed, in its circulation, with the 
influence of one of the chief names in modern scepticism, 
as to perplex many minds unaccustomed to the entangle- 
ments of sophistry. The principle ‘that no conceivable 
amount of testimony can prove a miracle, with David 
Hume for its original champion, has been eagerly adopted 


by the many whose convenience makes them unbelievers, 
11* 


134 LECTURE IV. 


but whose convenience it would not suit to attempt an 
honest, manly answer to the abounding testimony by which 
the miracles of the gospel are proved. A labour-saving 
machine was wanted, by which the whole business of 
silencing the inconvenient variety and troublesome multitude 
of christian evidences might be done at once, as well by the 
ignorant as the Jearned. Hume invented it. Any body can 
work it. It is mot necessary, any more, that a man should 
study the Bible, to refute its claims. He may never have 
seen it; but if he can only retain in his memory these few 
talismanic words, “ No testimony can prove a miracle,” it is 
enough. At the rubbing of this marvellous lamp, the 
fabric of christianity passes away. ‘The terrible genii of the 
gospel mysteries dissolve in air. Like a similar assertion, 
and equally philosophical doctrine of the same writer, that 
there is no external world—that this house is nothing but an 
idea, built not of matter, but only of mind—this happy 
invention of sceptical ingenuity digs so far below the founda- 
tions of all truth and common sense, that the man whose 
convenience bids him use it, may feel assured that not many 
advocates of christianity will descend low enough to spoil 
him of his consolation. 

A brief attention to this matter will not be out of place at 
present. 

The argument of the writer referred to, is abridged, in 
the Encyclopedia Britannica, as follows: “Our belief of 
any fact from the testimony of eye-witnesses 1s derived from 
no other principle than our experience of the veracity of 
human testimony. If the fact attested be miraculous, there 
arises a contest of two opposite experiences, or proof against 
proof. Now a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature ; 
and as a firm and unalterable experience has established 
these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very 
nature of the fact, is as complete as any argument from 
experience can possibly be imagined; and if so, it is an unde- 


LECTURE V. 135 


niable consequence that it cannot be surmounted by any 
proof whatever, derived from human testimony.” 

Now all this is very conclusive, provided we admit its 
premises. The grand hinge of the whole is this, that our 
belief in testimony is founded on no other principle than 
OUR EXPERIENCE OF THE VERACITY OF HUMAN TESTIMONY. 
Hence the reasoning is, that a miracle being, in the author’s 
estimation, contrary to experience, opposes and. contradicts 
the very foundation of its evidence, and therefore destroys 
itself. But let me ask, admitting that a miracle is contrary 
to experience, (which is not true,) what experience is it 
contrary to? The argument requires that it should be 
contrary to our experience of the veracity of human 
testimony. ‘lo say merely that it is contrary to experience 
of some sort, without specifying this particular sort, does not 
touch the question. It is its contrariety to that particular 
kind of experience, on which our faith in testimony (accord- 
ing to Hume) is built, that must destroy the credibility of 
a miracle, if it is to be destroyed at all. But this, it would 
be ridiculous to assert. So far from miracles being incon- 
sistent with our experience of the veracity of human testi- 
mony; the truth is directly on the other side. Deny that 
miracles were ever wrought, and your whole experience of 
the truth of testimony is directly and violently opposed. 

But again—Is our belief in testimony founded in our 
experience of its veracity? Prove that it is not, and the 
whole argument of our author is undermined. The proof 
is easy. None depend more absolutely upon testimony than 
those whose experience is almost a nullity. Children are 
perfect believers in its veracity. All writers on the philoso- 
phy of the mind, but the one before us, consider it an 
original principle of nature that we should rely on testimony, 
until there is proof, either of suspicious competency to know, 
or of suspicious honesty to speak, the truth. 'This principle 
is necessary to human nature, long before any experience 


136 LECTURE V. 


can be gathered up. Without it, how could children begin 
to learn? How could they avoid poison, or receive whole- 
some food, if they must wait for an experience of the 
veracity of their parents, and nurses, and teachers, before 
they can believe what they testify? The plain truth is, that 
instead. of experience being our whole dependence for the 
credibility of testimony, iteis just the school that makes us 
sometimes suspicious of that credibility. It teaches us that 
testimony may be false, and furnishes the characteristics by 
which we may distinguish between that which is suspicious, 
and that which may be confidently relied on. We deny, 
therefore, and with evident reason, the whole foundation of 
the argument we are considering. 

But again. Another essential hinge, in this argument, is 
the assertion that a miracle, being, as the author defines it, 
“a violation of the laws of nature,” is contrary to experience. 
Here we might deny that a miracle is a violation of the 
laws of nature. It is only a deviation from those laws, or 
from the customary mode of the divine operations. But, 
waving this, what is meant by a miracle being contrary to 
experience? Have we, or others ever experienced the 
opposite of any of the miracles of Christ? I cannot con- 
ceive how this could be, unless we had been on the spot 
when the miracle is said to have taken place, as when 
Lazarus is said to have risen from the dead; and instead of 
seeing him rise, had seen him continue dead. 'That is the 
only way in which I can conceive of opposition between 
experience and a miracle. he resurrection of Lazarus is 
not contrary to my experience, any more than a volcano is 
contrary to it. All I can say of either, in this respect, is, 
that I have never experienced it. It is beyond, not im 
opposition to, my experience. | 

But when our author asserts that miracles are contrary ¢o 
experience, what are we to understand? Does he mean 
one’s own personal experience? or the experience of all 


LECTURE V. 137 


mankind? If the former, then it would follow that testimony 
can render no event credible to us which we have not 
personally experienced. But this would be too sweeping, 
even for the most absolute scepticism. On this ground, a 
native of the torrid zone might refuse the testimony of the 
rest of the world in evidence of the fact that water in winter 
is so congealed that we can drive our carriages upon its 
surface. He need only say, “ It is contrary to my experience. 
I have never seen it, and therefore no testimony can make it 
credible.” * 

But does our author mean to be understood as affirming © 
that miracles are contrary to the experience of all mankind ? 
His argument will then stand as follows: ‘Belief in testimony 
is founded on experience. But miracles are contrary to the 
experience of all mankind. ‘They contradict, therefore, the 
credibility of testimony, and cannot be proved by it.’ But this 
is a manifest assumption of the whole question. Whether 
miracles are contrary to the experience of -aii mankind, is 
the precise point in debate. We assert that mankind, in 
different ages and places, have experienced them. Our 
author is at liberty, if he pleases, to assert the contrary. But 
it is too much to expect us to receive his assertion until it is 
proved. And if his argument cannot be sustained without 
thus taking for granted, in one of its premises, what it 
seeks to demonstrate in the conclusion, its correctness is 
certainly very suspicious. 

The admission of the principle on which the argument 
under consideration is founded, would lead to perfect ab- 
surdity. “There was a time when no one was acquainted 
with the laws of magnetism; these suspend in many 
instances the laws, of gravity; nor can I see, upon the 
principle in question, how the rest of mankind could have 


_ kw ees 


*On Hume’s argument, in general, see the references in Horne’s Introd., 
vol: i. p. 243. 


138 LECTURE V. 


credited the testimony of their first discoverer ; and yet to 
have rejected it, would have been to reject the truth. But 
that a piece of iron should ascend gradually from the earth, 
and fly at last with an increasing rapidity through the air, 
and, attaching itself to another piece of iron ore, should 
remain suspended, in opposition to the action of its gravity, is 
consonant to the laws of nature. I grant it; but there was 
a time when it was contrary, I say not to the laws of nature, 
but to the uniform experience of all preceding ages and 
countries ; and at the particular point of time, the testimony 
of an individual or of a dozen individuals, who should have 
reported themselves eye-witnesses of such a fact, ought, 
according to the argumentation (of Mr. Hume) to have been 
received as fabulous. And what are those laws of nature, 
which, according to this writer, can never be suspended? 
Are they not different to different men, according to the 
diversities of their comprehension and knowledge? And 
if any one of them (that, for instance, which rules the opera- 
tions of magnetism or electricity) should have been known 
to you, or to me alone, whilst all the rest of the world were 
unacquainted with it; the effects of it would have been new 
and unheard of in the annals, and contrary to the expe- 
rience, of mankind, and therefore ought not in your opinion 
to have been believed.”* If this be the legitimate result 
of the principle in question; if no testimony could have 
rendered the phenomena of magnetism credible, in the 
dawn of knowledge on that subject, because they were con- 
trary to experience; it is evident that a certain truth in 
Hume’s principle would have been, in that case, directly in 
Opposition. But whether the experience of mankind be 
opposed by phenomena above the laws of nature—smiracles 
—or by phenomena which, though in reality according to 
those laws, are perfectly new, and, to all human view, incon- 


hain ee 
* Bishop Watson. 


ee 


LECTURE V. 139 


sistent with the established order of nature, is of no conse- 
quence to the argument. Experience is opposed in both 
cases alike. It cannot be less absurd in one than in the 
other, to maintain, that because the phenomena have never 
been experienced, no testimony can make them credible. 

But if the argument of Hume, with all its assumptions, 
and false statements, and equivocal expressions, were true ; 
it would prove not only that miracles cannot be proved by 
testimony, but that they cannot be proved at all. Now, that 
it is possible for God to work a miracle, none will deny. 
Consequently, that it is possible that the miracles related in 
the New 'Testament are true, none will deny. Suppose them 
to be true, how can they be proved to us? If testimony will 
not do, what remains? Mathematical evidence—the evi- 
dence of the senses—are perfectly inapplicable. But there 
is no other description of evidence. If, therefore, those 
miracles are to be proved to us, it must be done by some 
species of evidence not now in existence, entirely foreign to 
the laws of nature: In other words, it must be miraculous. 
Miracle must be brought to prove miracle. And since no 
testimony, according to the principle we are considering, can 
prove a miracle, the very miracle which is brought in proof 
of those in the New Testament, must itself be proved by 
another before it can be believed by any who did not see it. 
But what an absurdity is here! If Jesus did open the eyes 
of the blind, who can maintain that God has no way of 
giving all generations reason to believe it without an unceas- 
ing series of miracles in all places, for the purpose ? 

There is but one way of evading this extreme and absurd 
conclusion. It must be denied that we have any reason to 
believe that God can work a miracle. For as long as it is 
acknowledged to be possible that God, by the apostles, did 
work miracles, the possibility of His making them credible to 
us, without other miracles to prove them, and by the natural 
means of human testimony, must also be acknowledged ; 


140 LECTURE V. 


the latter, to say the least of it, being no. greater effort of 
power than the former. To this necessity, the sagacity of 
our philosopher was not blind. Nor does he scruple at em- 
bracing it, rather than give up his favourite discovery. 
Speaking of some alleged miracles, he writes : “ What have 
we to oppose to such a cloud of witnesses, but the absolute 
impossibility or miraculous nature of the event ?” In this 
sentence, it is evident that “absolute necessity,” and “ maracu- 
lous nature,’ are used as equivalent expressions. But else- 
where he endeavours to persuade us that there 1s no reason 
to suppose that a miracle is possible with God. “ Though 
the Being (he says) to whom the miracle is ascribed, be, in 
this case, Almighty, it does not, on that account, become a 
whit more probable; since it is impossible for us to know 
the attributes or actions of such a Being, otherwise than 
from the experience which we have of his productions, in 
the usual course of nature.” This brings us directly to 
atheism. 'The argument is thus. We know the attributes 
of God only by the experience of his works in the usual 
course of nature. But, according to our philosopher, we 
have no experience of a miracle among those works. Con- 
sequently, we have no knowledge that there is any divine 
attribute by which God can produce a miracle. Now, 
besides the folly of denying the possibility of a miracle, 
because nothing like it is found in the usual course of nature, 
when a miracle, by its definition, is owt of the usual course 
of nature; we have here the plain denial of the omnipo- 
tence of God. For if we have no reason to believe that 
God can produce an event differing from and above the 
ordinary course of nature, we have no reason to suppose 
that he is Almighty ; or that he is the Sovereign of Nature ; 
or that He created, and preserves, and governs, all things. 
The nature and majesty of God are denied by this argu- 
ment. It is atheism. There is no stopping place for con- 
sistency between the first principle of the essay of Hume, 


LECTURE V. 141 


and the last step in the denial of God with the abyss of 
darkness for ever. Hume, accordingly, had no belief in the 
being of God. If he did not positively deny it, he could not 
assert that he believed it. He was a poor, blind, groping 
compound of contradictions. He was literally “without 
God and without hope ;” “ doting about questions and strifes 
of words ;” and rejecting life and immortality out of defer- 
ence to a paltry quibble, which common sense is ashamed of. 
“An unfortunate disposition to doubt every thing,” said 
Lord Charlemont, one of his particular friends and admirers, 
“seemed interwoven with the nature of Hume, and never 
was there, I am convinced, a more thorough and sincere 
sceptic. He seemed not to be certain even of his own 
‘present existence, and could not. therefore, be expected to 
entertain any settled opinion respecting his future state.” 
But it was very needless for our author to give himself so 
‘much intellectual effort as must have been required for* the 
invention of this short and easy method of undermining the 
evidences of Christianity, when he had previously produced 
a much shorter and easier plan. He had already proved, in 
his estimation, that there is no external world—nothing but 
ideas ; consequently there can be no external miracles— 
nothing but miraculous ideas. Why not hold to this? 
It was certainly just as reasonable ; just as consistent with 
philosophy and common sense, as the idea that no testimony 
can prove a miracle. | 
But our sweeping sceptic was not quite so well satisfied 
with his arguments against all testimony and all sense, as 
would at first appear. Speaking of his speculations, he 
says: “they have so wrought upon me, and heated my 
brain, that I am ready to reject all belief and reasoning, and 
can look upon no opinion even as more probable or likely 
than another. Where am I, or what? From what causes 
do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I 


return ? Whose favour shall I court, and whose anger must 
12 


142 LECTURE V. 


I dread? What beings surround me, and on whom have [ 
any influence, or who have any influence on me? I am 
confounded with all these questions, and begin to fancy 
myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable, envi- 
roned with the deepest darkness, and utterly deprived of the 
use of every member and faculty.” A sad confession this 
of the satisfaction of what he calls “ihe calm, though obscure 
regions of philosophy.” 

But he proceeds: “ Most fortunately it happens that since 
reason is incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature herself 
suffices to that purpose, and cures me of this philosophical 
melancholy and delirium, either by relaxing this bent of 
mind, or by some avocation and lively impression of my 
senses, which obliterates ail these chimeras. I dine, I play 
a game of back-gammon, I converse and am merry with my 
friends; and when, after three or four hours amusement, I 
would return to these speculations, they appear so cold, and 
strained, and ridiculous, that I cannot find in my heart to 
enter into them any farther.” A sad exhibition this of the 
dignity and consolations of scepticism. But if Mr. Hume 
was sometimes constrained to look upon his own specula- 
tions as strained and ridiculous, we may be pardoned if they 
appear to us in the same aspect. Indeed, it was more than 
he could do, to write consistently with them, for any length 
of time. His own common sense insisted, sometimes, on the 
privilege of speech; so that, after all the show of reasoning 
to which we have been attending; after having asserted 
that “a miracle, supported by any human testimony, is more 
properly a subject of derision than of argument,” we find 
him apparently coming to himself, and making the following 
most smgular acknowledgement : “ Town there may possibly 
be miracles of such a kind as to admit of proof from 
human testimony.” He then states an imaginary case of 
miraculous occurrence, attested by a measure of proof, 
which, he says, philosophers ought to receive as certain 


LECTURE V. 143 


testimony. But how is this? Has he entirely abandoned 
his ground? One would think so. But mark his method 
of escape. We quote his words: “But should this miracle 
be ascribed to a new system of religion, men in all. ages 
have been so imposed on, by ridiculous stories of that kind, 
that this very circumstance would be a full proof of the 
cheat.” Here, evidently, the whole ground is changed. Mi- 
racles are no more considered as incapable of proof by 
testimony. 'They are no more set at nought because con- 
trary to experience. It is admitted they may be proved by 
testimony, whether with object or without it, except when 
the object is religion. It is nothing, therefore, in the nature 
of a miracle, but only in its application, that renders it 
incredible. This is indeed a change. A miracle may be 
proved any where but in the service of a revelation from 
God. But why? Because, says our author, “men in all 
ages have been so imposed on by ridiculous stories of that 
kind.” Now, besides that it is untrue that any religion, but 
that of the Bible, ever attempted to set up its claims by the 
credentials of miracles, this is utter trifling. After all the 
metaphysical parade to which we have been attending; are 
we brought to this, that, because some men have been knaves 
and fools, therefore all must be such? Can we believe in 
the sincerity of none, because hypocrites have been many ? 
Must we refuse belief in any accounts of physical phe- 
nomena, because men in all ages have been imposed on by 
ridiculous accounts of such things? Must we decline 
accepting any notes issued by our banks, because men have 
so often been imposed on by counterfeit currency? On the 
contrary, counterfeit currency is positive proof that there is 
such a thing as a sound and honest currency. And in like 
manner, the fact of spurious pretensions to miracles, so far 
from being a reason for rejecting all accounts of miracles, is 
a strong presumptive proof that some of them are true. An 
argument which finds itself constrained to seek’ refuge 


{44 LECTURE V. 


under the shadow of such a position as this, must indeed 
have been reduced to an extremity. | 

We have dwelt on this desperate effort of the most noted 
and acute sceptic of modern times, much longer than was 
salled for by any thing either difficult or important in itself, 
because it affords a very strong presumptive proof of the 
impossibility, by any force of talent or skilfulness of ma- 
neuvre, of breaking the solid mass of testimony by which 
the miracles of the gospel are defended. Such a mind, as 
that of the historian of England, would never have descended 
to the absurdity of denying the credibility of any testimony 
in proof of a miracle, had it not been that all his efforts to 
pick a flaw in the testimony of those of Christianity had 
utterly failed. Show me a man endeavouring to pick his 
way through the stone wali of a prison, and I need not 
be told that he is shut up, and has despaired of escape 
by the door. 

The pains which all sceptics have taken to escape from 
being shut up to the faith of Christ, adopting every. other 
conceivable method than the one simple and equitable plan 
of refuting the direct evidences of christianity, should be 
considered unequivocable proof that there is a force in those 
evidences which their enemies dare not encounter face to 
face—something that persuades the bold champion of infi- 
delity that in this warfare, “discretion is the better part 
of valour.” 

But we cannot relinquish this division of our lecture, 
without pausing to draw a lesson from the scepticism of 
Hume. That he was a learned and very ingenious writer 
none can deny. 'That he was much more amiable and less 
unexemplary in his temper and habits than infidel cham- 
pions generally are, we have no disposition to question. 
But these commendations only render his case the more 
affecting, and his insidious sophistry the more dangerous. 
The pride of reason was his master. 'The praise of a phi- 


LECTURE V. 145 


losopher was his idol; to doubt what others believed, his 
habitual tendency; to maintain a paradox against the 
world, his prevailing ambition. Under the influence of these 
dispositions, the very fact that the religion of Christ was a 
revelation, requiring him to sit at its feet and Jearn, instead 
of a theory, flattering the sufficiency of his own powers to 
discover truth, was its condemnation. 'The more it possessed 
the sanction of ages and of the greatest minds, the more did 
it rouse him to its rejection. The imposing multitude and 
weight of its evidences were the strongest stimulants of his 
unbelief. He first denied the miracles of the gospel, and 
then set his wits to contrive some grand argument by which 
all the testimony in their favour might be undermined. He 
reasoned himself almost out of his own existence, and sur- 
rounded himself with impenetrable darkness. 'The present 
was all contradiction, the future all “an enigma,” to his 
mind. Poor, unhappy, philosopher! How little his learn- 
ing could do in the search of truth, for want of humility! 
How easily can all human knowledge, and all mortal wisdom, 
become foolishness, when the wise man leans to his own 
understanding, instead of acknowledging and seeking God 
in all his ways! That Hume was accustomed to pray for 
guidance in his investigations of truth, it is impossible to 
suppose. ‘I'he great fountain of light being thus denied, 
God gave him up to the devices and desires of his own 
heart. Verily, “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” 
Thus, most justly, did our philosopher meet with darkness 
in the day-time, and was permitted to grope in the noonday 
as in the night. One just view of himself as a sinner would 
have refuted and broke up his whole system of proud unbe- 
lief. I have known a good deal, by experience, of the Conflict 
which infidels maintain behind the entrenchments of Hume 
and other champions of their cause; I have known also 
something, personally, of conversions among such people; 


and it has often astonished me to see how immediately a 
12* 


146 LECTURE V. 


whole system of well jointed infidelity tumbles to pieces ; 
how entirely the most darling argument against the gospel 
is changed into folly, and given to the winds, as soon as 
one realizes that he is a sinner, and must stand before God 
in judgment. 

IV. Let us pass to our fourth proposition. T'he testimony 
in proof of the miracles of the gospel has not diminished 
in force by the increase of age. It is not an uncommon 
idea that the transmission of remote events, by successive 
testimony, from generation to generation, weakens their 
evidence in proportion to the time. It is supposed, that had 
we lived in the fourth instead of the nineteenth century, we 
should have possessed the testimonial evidence of the chris- 
tian miracles in much greater force than it is now enjoyed. 
But we deny that there is any reason for this supposition. 
Mere oral tradition must weaken with age. But written 
testimony cannot suffer loss as long as the genuineness of the 
document containing it is unimpaired, and the character of 
the witnesses is substantiated. For example: suppose it be 
recorded on the minutes of the Young Men’s Society of New 
York, that on the 13th day of January, 1832, this lecture 
was delivered to its members, on the Evidences of Chris- 
tianity, and those minutes be laid up among its records ; 
and the society exist from generation to generation, keeping 
a regular account of its transactions, for 400 years; and at 
the end of that time, some one, searching into its early 
papers, should read the minutes of the above event; the 
evidence of the fact would be considered as conclusive, as if, 
instead of 400 years, only 50 had elapsed since its occur- 
rence. ‘The event would be as certain as the genuineness 
of the’ record, and would have no reference to the age of 
either. Let the society continue 1000 years, and its records 
being still preserved uncorrupted, the evidence will remain 
undiminished. We rely upon the testimony in proof of the 
invasion of Britain by Julius Ceesar, or of Italy by Hanni- 


LECTURE V. 147 


bal, with quite as much confidence as we read of the wars 
of Charles the First in England. And if our present ac- 
counts of those widely remote events shall be preserved to 
the end of the world, the confidence of our posterity at that 
time in their historical correctness, ceteris paribus, will be 
as complete as ours. Indeed, it is only with regard to the 
facts related in the Bible that men ever talk of any diminu- 
tion, by the lapse of years, in the credibility of testimony. 
But with how little reason is evident when you remember 
that a matter of historical fact is of the same nature in re- 
gard to testimony, whether it be found between the covers of 
the Bible, or those of a Roman historian. For precisely the 
same reason that the event of this lecture, recorded in the 
minutes of the Young Men’s Society, would retain its evi- 
dence unimpaired as long as the Society and its minutes 
should exist together, does the testimony to the great events 
of primitive christianity continue to this day unabated.* 
The christian church is also a society which was in 
existence when the events recorded in its scriptures occurred. 
Its principal institutions are founded upon them. Our New 
Testament books are its records, which, like those of any 
other institution of past ages, have been handed down from 
generation to generation. The members of the christian 
church have died from age to age, but the church, the 
society, the living keeper of these records, the librarian of 
the scriptures, has never died. The passing away of the 
several individuals who, since the commencement of chris- 
tianity, have belonged to this society, has no more to do with 
the permanence of the institution itself, than have the rapid 
changes in the particles of the human body, with the perma- 
nence of the man. There is a personal identity in the 
midst of continual change. 'The man of seventy is the 
very identical man that he was at twenty, though many 


* Gregory’s Letters. 


148 LECTURE V. 


times have the particles composing his body been entirely 
changed. ‘Thus the christian church in her nineteenth 
century is the same identical society that existed under 
that name in the days of the apostles, though so many 
generations of members have lived and died. She is as 
capable of remembering the events of her youth, as we 
are of remembering the events of ours. The records made 
by her members in testimony of those events, and in the 
age of their occurrence, having been preserved in her 
possession with the greatest vigilance and the most zealous 
attachment, are as certain evidence at present, as when 
they were written, of the facts related therein. She has 
been reading those records in her places of worship, in all 
parts of the world, ever since they were written; and she 
knows as well that they have preserved their personal 
identity, and, in all important respects, their uncorrupt, un- 
mutilated character, as any of us can know that our family 
bibles are the same now as when they were purchased. Thus, 
I think, we are warranted in considering our proposition 
sustained, that the testumony in proof of the miracles of the 
gospel has not diminished in force by the increase of age.* 

V. We proceed to our last proposition, that, in being called 
to examine the credibility of the gospel miracles by the evi- 
dence of testimony, we are more favourably situated in 
regard to moral probation and discipline, than if we had 
been enabled to judge of them by sensible evidence. This 
will appear from, the consideration, that evidence obtained 
by investigation; and appreciated by reflection, is more con- 
sistent with the state of probation, and of moral discipline 
and responsibility in which we are placed, than evidence 
forced upon us by the involuntary agency of the senses. 

We are under trial and discipline, as well as to our under- 
standing, as our conduct. We are responsible as well for 


rer ee nee eC Lee Ns OR RB c.. 


* Wilson’s Lectures. 


LECTURE V. 149 


what we believe, as what we do. Precisely the same causes 
that would persuade a man to immoral practice, may per- 
suade him to immoral principle. The same disposition that 
would induce him to disobey the precepts, may lead him to 
deny the doctrines and evidences of the gospel. It is there- 
fore his trial, in part, whether in forming his opinion of 
religious truth, he will so resist evil example and prejudice, 
and so deny himself the influence of all sinful inclinations 
and partialities, as to enter with honest candour upon the 
’ investigation of what he ought to believe and do, witha full 
determination to embrace the truth wherever it may appear. 
Now, with the nature and responsibility of this probationary 
condition, the evidence of testimony in proof of the christian 
miracles is specially consistent. Did those miracles appear 
before us, as once for special reasons they did before 
multitudes, forcibly arresting our senses; not only com- 
pelling attention, but almost compelling submission, by the 
palpable and amazing evidences attending them; it is evident 
that there would remain comparatively but little room for 
any freedom of mind or will; and consequently for any 
moral probation. Liberty of will and of decision would 
be suspended in proportion to the degree in which the 
senses should be directly and impressively addressed. But 
the miracles of the gospel addressing, not our senses, but our 
minds, through the medium of testimony, possess a degree 
of evidence which, while amply sufficient to satisfy all who 
examine it with suitable impartiality, is not so overcoming 
but that one may reject it, if he choose; not so irresistible, 
put that persons of indolence: and indifference, or of pride 
and prejudice—persons who examine to refute it, more 
than to ascertain its truth, or whose habits and dispositions 
set them in direct opposition to the holiness of the gospel— 
may receive their reward in being allowed to continue un- 
convinced. They are thus dealt with in a way peculiarly con- 
sistent with their character as moral and accountable agents. 


150 LECTURE V. 


The exercise of an active solicitude for the discovery of 
truth thus presented, and of a fair, impartial consideration 
of its.evidence before conviction, is as truly an exercise of 
morality ; as much an act of moral discipline and of a cor- 
rect temper of mind, as a correct religious practice would be 
in one already convinced. It is also as really an exhibition 
of immorality and dissoluteness to manifest a spirit of in- 
difference, or of prejudice, or aversion, in relation to a 
matter of such infinite importance, as if one should display 
the same spirit in regard to the most necessary duties of ° 
moral living. “'Thus, that religion is not intuitively true, 
but a matter of deduction and inference; that a conviction 
of its truth is not forced upon every one, but is left to be by 
some collected with a heedful attention to premises; this as 
much constitutes religious probation; as much affords oppor- 
tunity for right and wrong behaviour, as any thing what 
ever.”* It tests the heart of the inquirer. 

But to illustrate our doctrine, take the case of one who is 
disposed to put religion away from him; who comes to its 
evidences with a decided wish that it may appear untrue, 
and examines them under strong aversions and prejudices. 
Suppose him suddenly arrested by the sight of a miracle 
wrought in his presence, so that in spite of all his dislikes 
and evil dispositions, he cannot escape believing. Take then 
the case of another, bearing a precisely similar character, 
who, having no evidence but that of testimony, is obliged, 
either to discipline his mind into a frame for candid, honest 
investigation ; or else hazard the consequences of an inquiry 
conducted under the influence of habits and tempers directly 
hostile to the clear view and impartial acknowledgment of 
truth. Suppose him to choose the latter alternative, and that 
he is permitted, in reward for this voluntary perversion of 
his judgment, to continue in unbelief. I ask which of these 


*Butler’s Analogy, p. i. ¢. vi. 


LECTURE V. 151 


individuals is treated in a way most consistent with his con- 
dition as a moral and accountable agent ?* 

But besides the greater adaptation to a probationary state, 
there is greater spiritual profit in the way by which we of 
latter days must arrive at the truth of the miracles of the 
gospel. 'l'ake the case of two Christians; let one be a 
disciple of these days, and the other, Thomas, one of the 
apostles. They are equally convinced of the Saviour’s resur- 
rection, but by different means; Thomas by the force of 
sight and touch; the other, by a careful, honest examination 
of the testimony we now possess. Which, in becoming a 
disciple, expressed the greater love of the truth? Which, the 
greater readiness to receive and submit to it? Thomas had 


* “If (says Butler) there are any persons who never set themselves heartily 
and in earnest to be informed in religion; if there are any who secretly wish 
it may not prove true, and are less attentive to evidence than to difficulties, 
and more to objections than to what is said in answer to them—these persons 
will scarce be thought in a likely way of seeing the evidence of religion, 
though it were most certainly true, and capable of being ever so fully proved. 
If any accustom themselves to consider this subject usually in the way of 
mirth, or sport; if they attend to forms and representations, and inadequate 
manners of expression, instead of the real things intended by them, (for 
signs often can be no more than inadequately expressive of the things sig- 
nified), or if they substitute human errors in the room of divine truth—why 
may not all, or any of these things, hinder some men from seeing that evi- 
dence which really is seen by others, as a like turn of mind, with respect to 
matters of common speculation and practice, does, we find by experience, 
hinder them from attaining that knowledge and right understanding, in mat- 
ters of common speculation and practice, which more fair and attentive minds 
can attain to? And in general, levity, carelegsness, passion, and prejudice, 
do hinder us from being rightly informed with respect to common things; and 
they may in like manner, and perhaps in some farther providential manner, 
with respect to moral and religious subjects; hinder evidence from being 
laid before us, and from being seen when it is. The scripture does declare 
that every one shall not wnderstand. And it makes no difference by what 
providential conduct this comes to pass; whether the evidence of christianity 
was originally and with design, put, and left; so that those who are desirous 
of evading moral obligations, should not see it, and that honest-minded 
persons should; or whether it comes to pass by any other means.” 

Butler’s Analogy, p. ii. ¢. vi. 


152 LECTURE V. 


only to open his eyes, and reach forth his hand; the other 
pursued a course of candid, patient, serious reflection. Thomas 
required for his conviction that the Saviour should stand 
before him, and say: “Be not faithless, but believing.” The 
other went forth seeking “ the truth as it is in Jesus,” through 
all the reasoning and objections; all the patient consideration 
and study, which circumstances placed in his way, not de- 
manding to be constrained by the arrest of his senses, but 
prepared to submit as soon as the testimony was sufficient. 
Now it is plain that in this case there is a simplicity of 
heart; a love of truth; a candour in its pursuit, and a 
willingness to bow to it at all cost, such as are by no means 
implied in the conviction of Thomas. It is plain, also, that 
the moral discipline to which the former was subjected—and 
the state of mind involved in the mode by which he came 
at the truth, are far more conducive to his happiness, and 
afford a much higher promise of steadfast and elevated at- 
tachment to the service of the truth, than if, like Thomas, it 
could be said of him: “Because thou hast seen, thou hast 
believed.” So that we may now acknowledge the truth of 
those words, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet 
have believed; and may repeat our proposition, that a 
having to try the credibility of the gospel miracles by the 
evidence of testimony, we are more favourably situated, in 
a very important sense, than had we been present to judge 
them by the evidence of our senses." 

From the whole truth exhibited in this lecture, we are 
called to adore the wisdom of God. “ His ways are not as our 
ways; neither his thoughts as our thoughts.” Why, in such 
a momentous business as that of religion (demands some 
weak mortal), was not truth rendered intuitively certam, so 
that. the most careless could not mistake? Why (asks 
another) should such tremendous matters be necessarily 


TS EI RR LI lee enn nnn ne ee ER ane es al 


- *See Saurin, on Obscure Faith. 


LECTURE V. 153 


settled by investigation and argument; by the weight of 
testimony, and the records of distant ages; instead of bring- 
ing them at once to the test of every one’s experience? 
“Show us a sign!” is still the requisition of multitudes, 
who, if they must believe, desire to do it without trouble ; 
but would much rather be excused from both. God is infi- 
nitely wiser. ‘He knoweth whereof we are made.” He 
has dignified us with reason, as well as sense; and made us 
capable of learning by reflection and study, as well as of 
knowing by instinct and necessity. He deals with us as 
rational beings. He makes.us responsible for the use of our 
minds, as well as of our limbs. He requires the obedience 
of the will, the labour of our thoughts, and the pains-taking 
of all our intellectual and moral faculties, in order that we 
may know and serve him as becometh our natures. To 
this end, He has so constructed religion, and delivered to us 
its evidences, that whoever is sufficiently interested in His 
will to bestow his best thoughts, and affections, and efforts, 
upon the work of its discovery, truly desirous of knowing 
that he may embrace it, and earnestly looking up to God for 
protection against prejudice, and for guidance in the way of 
light, will certainly come to the knowledge of the truth, what- 
ever the grade of his intellect, and will arrive at it by a way 
most wisely adapted to make him hold fast and obey it. On 
the other hand, God has so framed the gospel, and set before 
us its credentials, that whether one will believe or not, is left 
to his free and voluntary choice ; his probationary character 
is inviolate ; his reason and his will are perfectly responsible. 
If he desire not to believe; if his heart revolt against the 
gospel on account of the humility, and repentance, and holi- 
ness, and self-denial, it demands of him; if he study its 
nature and evidence carelessly, proudly, and partially ; if he 
consult more the objector than the advocate, and try to invent 
reasons for unbelief more than arguments for the contrary : 
if he love vice, and would retain his sins; he may easily con- 


13 


154 LECTURE V. 


vince himself against the claims of the gospel. God has 
left unclosed many avenues by which such a man may 
escape into infidelity. He is wisely punished by being per- 
mitted to go in thereat. God may justly take him at his 
word, and condemn him to the darkness and final misery of 
rejecting what he investigated so unjustly. It is the wisdom 
of God that His truth does not, in offering conviction to 
such examiners, afford at the same time, encouragement to 
~ such unworthiness. 


LECTURE VI. 155 


LECTURE VL 


MIRACLES. 


Our last lecture was occupied in settling certain prelimina- 
ries, for the purpose of being enabled, in this, to enter 
directly upon the work of weighing the testimony to the 
miracles of Christ and his apostles. The question to which 
we now proceed may be stated thus: The Lord Jesus Christ 
claimed to be received as a teacher, come from God for the 
purpose of communicating a divine revelation. His apostles 
claimed to be received as his inspired and divinely com- 
missioned agents in publishing that revelation. All appealed 
to miracles, as the credentials of their embassy. None can 
deny that such credentials, plainly ascertained, are certain 
proof of the sanction of God. The appeal to them is, there- 
fore, unquestionably fair. The point, then, which remains 
to be determined, is: Have we satisfactory evidence that 
genuine miracles were wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ 
and his apostles ? 

In answer to this question, we might proceed on a plan 
of argument which would occupy but a few moments. In 
the lecture preceding the last, we ascertained the credibility 
of the gospel history ; in other words, that we have the strong- 
est reason to rely implicitly on the narratives contained there- 
in, as to all matters of fact. Now it is there related, that 
on a certain occasion our Saviour was followed by five 
thousand men, into a desert place, where they were en- 
hungered—that all the food in his possession was five barley 
loaves, and a few small fishes—that of these he commanded 
his disciples to distribute to the multitude; and after they 
had all eaten and were filled, the fragments remaining were 


156 LECTURE VI. 


much more, in quantity, than the original loaves and 
fishes. ‘These are plain statements, related in the gospel 
as unquestionable facts. 'The gospel history being credible, 
they must be true. ‘To call that a credible history, and then 
suppose it unworthy of reliance in such prominent particu- 
lars, would be absurd. But these facts constitute a miracle. 
‘There must have been a miraculous multiplication of the 
loaves and fishes. Consequently, in having proved the 
credibility of the Gospel history, we have proved that in this 
case a miracle was wrought. 

‘Thus might we proceed with regard to a great variety of 
other statements, as to the works of Christ and his apostles ; 
and I fully believe that, in strict justice, nothing more ought 
to be required in evidence of the gospel miracles, than what 
has been already adduced in proof of the credibility of the 
narratives contained in the New Testament. But inasmuch 
as our object is not merely to exhibit a sound and conclusive 
argument, such as ought to satisfy every mind, but so to 
present the great variety and abundance of proof in support 
of christianity, that no attentive candid mind can help being 
satisfied, we will adopt a broader plan. 

Before proceeding any further, let it be remarked, that the 
religion of the Bible is the only one which, in its first intro- 
duction, appealed to miracles for evidence of the divine 
authority of its teachers. Under the religion of the Bible I 
include the dispensation of Moses and that of Christ, as exhi- 
biting essentially the same religion; though more largely 
and clearly revealed under the latter than under the former. 
Both dispensations were introduced and sanctioned by mira- 
cles. Now, I know, it is a common supposition, that the 
same mode of attestation was resorted to by all the false 
religions that ever gained acceptance in the world; and that 
this was the chief cause of their ascendency in the public 
mind. But the truth is, that no religion, except that of the 
Bible, was ever set up by appeal to miracles as the creden- 


LECTURE VI. 157 


tials of its founder. We speak of miracles which are capa- 
ble of being witnessed and investigated by others. It is not 
asserted that many wonderful things, of a miraculous nature, 
‘have not been pretended to and boasted among the disciples 
of sundry false religions. The annals of paganism abound 
with relations of auguries, and oracles, and apparitions. 
Many miraculous, not to say ridiculous, marvels are asserted 
of Mohammed. But the remark is applicable to all of these 
things, and is of great importance in connexion with our | 
present object, that they were asserted not as proofs of re- 
ligions appealing to them for credentials, but only as ap- 
pendages of religions already set up, and received on con- 
siderations entirely independent of their truth or falsehood. 
It was the credit and influence of the established religion 
which gave them all their currency ; and not their evidence 
which established the religion with which they were re- 
spectively connected. The prodigies of heathenism, unac- 
companied as they were by any pretence of proof, had no 
manner of reference to the setting up of a new system of 
faith, or of a teacher pretending to a divine commission. 
Miraculous stories were published of Mohammed by writers 
of six and eight centuries after his death; but no such pre- 
tensions were made by himself. On the contrary, he ex- 
pressly disclaimed miraculous powers. In the Koran it is 
written of him: “ Nothing hindered us from sending thee 
with miracles, except that the former nations have charged 
them with imposture.” Again: “They say, unless a sign 
be sent down unto him from his Lord, we will not believe ; 
answer, signs are wn the power of God alone, and I am no 
more than a public preacher. Is it not sufficient for them 
that we have sent down unto them the book of the Koran, to 
be read unto them?” We grant that Mohammed did give 
out to the credulity of his followers a few marvellous doings ; 
but they were such as cannot be included under the title of 


sensible miracles, inasmuch as he always took the discreet 


158 LECTURE VI. 


precaution of having no witness but himself, entirely avoid- 
ing the hazardous experiment of resting the evidence of 
his divine mission upon the testimony of any eyes more 
disinterested than his own. 

But how can it be accounted for, that one of such high 
pretensions—aware, as he was, of the success which mira- 
cles had obtained for the gospel in times past—should have 
neglected so powerful a means of proselyting the world? It 
was not for want of importunity on the part of others; for 
his opposers were constantly teazing him with their demands 
on this head. It was not because he could anticipate no 
favourable influence from a well-sustained pretension to 
miracles ; for his adversaries assured him, even by oaths, 
that on the evidence of one such sign they would own his 
claims. Nor was it that Mohammed was too honest. The 
marvellous tales of the nocturnal visits of Gabriel; of his 
own night-journey; and of the transmission, from time to 
time, of parcels of the uncreated book from heaven, prove 
what this impostor was capable of attempting when allured 
by a prospect of success. Nor was it that this unequalled 
adventurer was deficient in an unusual degree of craft and 
address for the management of bold imposture. His whole 
biography would refute such an opinion, Nor was it that 
he was surrounded with a people peculiarly prepared, by 
knowledge and cultivated discernment, for the detection of 
such frauds. 'The age was one of the darkest in the annals 
of man, and his country, one of the darkest of that age. 
Nor could it have been that his cause needed no such auxil- 
lary ; for the fruits of his labour, during the first three years, 
were only fourteen disciples ; and in ten years his cause had 
not advanced beyond, and had made but little progress 
within, the walls of Mecca. Then if Mohammed was 
neither too honest to attempt the forgery of miracles, nor too 
unskilful to manage it with cunning and address; if his 
cause heeded it, and his enemies demanded it, and the bar- 


LECTURE VI. 159 


barity of the people and age favoured it; no earthly reason 
can be given for his having disclaimed the attempt, except 
that he considered it too difficult and hazardous ; too certain 
of detection, even among a barbarous, credulous, and super- 
stitious race. 'The religion of the Bible is the only one that 
ever ventured on such evidence in proof of divine original. 
This single fact, united with the well known truth that, 
however her miracles may have been derided and suspected 
by enemies, none ever pretended to have discovered an impo- 
sition, is strong presumptive evidence that they had a reality 
which no human device could rival—a truth which no 
human scrutiny could alarm. 

In coming, therefore, to our present examination, we 
should feel that the religion of the Bible stands alone, not 
only as to the wisdom and grandeur of her communications, 
but equally so as to the boldness of her evidence; the subli- 
mity of her credentials; and the godlike dignity with which 
she cometh to the light, that her deeds “may be made mani- 
fest that they are wrought in God.” 

We proceed to the testimony connected with the miracles 
of Christ. 

I. We observe, in the first place, that supposing the works — 
related of the Lord Jesus to have actually occurred, many 
of them must have been genuine miracles. They cannot 
be ascribed to natural causes. If five thousand men were 
fed, when all the food to feed them with, prior‘ to the act of 
Jesus, was a few loaves and fishes ; if the centurion’s servant 
was healed, at the word of Jesus, while the latter was no- 
where within the sight, or hearing, or knowledge, of that 
servant; if the man born blind was made to see by no other 
physical act than that of Jesus putting clay on his eyes, and 
his washing it off in the pool of Siloam ; if Lazarus, having 
been dead four days, did come forth from the sepulchre, at 
the word of Jesus; then we have facts for which no natural 
causes can account. ‘They are unquestionable miracles, and 


160 LECTURE VI. 


we are forced to the alternative of either denying, in the 
face of all evidence, the truth of the statements contained 
in the gospel history ; or else acknowledging that miracles, in 
the fullest sense, were wrought at the word of Christ. 

II. The miracles of Christ were such as could at once be 
brought zo the test of the senses. It is an essential requisite 
to a rational belief in miraculous agency, that one be pre- 
sented with facts of such a nature as that the senses of those 
present could easily decide upon their reality and their super- 
natural character. Now, that the senses of the most ignorant 
were as competent as those of the most learned; that the 
senses of any man or woman in Judea were perfectly compe- 
tent to decide whether the son of the widow of Nain, having 
been dead and carried out to be buried, did arise and sit up 
at the word of Christ, and continue thereafter to reside, a 
living man, in Nain; that any one’s senses were perfectly 
competent to judge whether thousands of men were fed with 
a few loaves and fishes, or the blind received their sight, or 
the lepers were cleansed, or those, notoriously lame from 
their birth, were enabled to walk at the bidding of Christ, it 
would be folly to doubt. 

Ill. The miracles of Christ were performed for the most 
part in the most public manner. It is the detracting cir- 
cumstance of all the most plausible pretensions to miracles, 
exclusive of those of the scriptures, that they were done in 
a corner, or in the presence only of those already inclined to 
believe them, or under favour of circumstances calculated 
to prevent a free examination. Just the contrary is the 
fact with regard to a great portion of the wonderful works — 
of Christ. Not only were they accessible to the senses of 
witnesses ; but to the senses of multitudes of witnesses, of 
witnesses of the most eager and violent enmity to the claims 
of Jesus; witnesses of all ranks and classes in society—the 
learned and mighty, as well as the ignorant and feeble—the 
scribes and Pharisees, the priest and the centurion, as well 


LECTURE VI. 161 


as the publicans and beggars. It was in the synagogues, in 
the streets, in the open fields, surrounded by thousands—in 
the midst of Jerusalem, and at the time of the great annual 
festivals, when an immense concourse of Jews, from all parts 
of the world, crowded the holy city, that almost all of the 
mighty works of Jesus were performed. In this way, as in 
other ways, he could say to his persecutors, “ I spake openly 
to the world.” 

His miracles were wrought upon subjects so numerous, in 
so many places, and in such circumstances, as that none 
could suspect the cases to have been previously selected and 
prepared. What the condition of the subject had been 
before the miracle, thousands knew, and all could easily 
ascertain. What it was, for a long time after the miracle, 
was equally notorious. ‘Those who were cured of blindness, 
or leprosy, or lameness, or palsy, or who had been raised from 
the dead, did not die immediately after, nor hide themselves 
from public inspection; but continued to go in and out 
among the people, as living examples of the power of Christ. 
The grave of Lazarus was surrounded with unbelieving Jews. 
They saw him come forth. They had as much opportunity, 
as disposition, to find out whether it was Lazarus or some 
one else; whether the man was alive, or only pretending to 
be alive. Instead of being immediately snatched from their 
view, he was seated some time after as one of the guests at 
a supper, in Bethany; and so well known was the fact, 
that “much people of the Jews” came to the place to. have 
a sight of one who had been raised from the dead. “ The 
chief priests consulted that they might put him to death, 
because that, by reason of him, many of the Jews went 
away and believed on Jesus.” 

IV. The miracles of Christ and his apostles were very 
numerous, and of great variety. It has been a characteris- 
tic of all cases of imposture, that the wonderful works pre- 
tended to were but few in number, and of great sameness. 


162 LECTURE VI. 


The sect of the Jansenists, in the church of Rome, pretended 
to miracles at the tomb, and by the posthumous intercessions, 
of the Abbé Paris. But, besides the want of evidence that 
any of the facts recorded were miraculous, they were neither 
numerous nor various. Could this be said of the works of 
Christ, it would deprive them of one of the most palpable 
evidences of the fearless integrity in which they were 
wrought. But his history is full of miraculous works. 
Besides about forty that are related at large, we frequently 
meet with such accounts as this: “ His fame went through 
out all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick people 
that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and 
those which were possessed with devils, and those which 
were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed 
them.” Similar declarations are made as to the miracles of ° 
the apostles. As, for example, in Acts, v.16: “'There came 
also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, 
bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with un- 
clean spirits; and they were healed every one.” 

But the miracles of the Saviour and his apostles were 
also of great variety. It was not disease of one or two 
classes only that Jesus removed, but disease of all kinds. 
Not diseases only, but all kinds of human calamity, departed 
at his will. Even death surrendered his captives at his com- 
mand. ‘The blind from their birth; the hopeless leper ; 
those that were lame from the womb; those that had long 
been bowed down with infirmity ; the withered, the palsied, 
the insane—all were alike delivered of their affliction. On 
two occasions, thousands were fed with a mere pittance of 
food. ‘Thrice, beside the instance of his own resurrection, 
did Jesus raise the dead. A corresponding variety character- 
izes the works of his apostles. 

V. It is a matter of great importance to remark, that 
amidst all this variety, the success in every instance was 
instantaneous and complete. The sick were perfectly healed. 


LECTURE VI. 163 


The deaf, and blind, and lame, were perfectly delivered 
from their infirmities; the leper was entirely cleansed ; the 
dead arose, not merely to life, but to health and strength. 
These effects were as immediate as they were perfect. No 
sooner was the voice spoken, or the thing done, that was 
required of the applicant, than all was finished. Did Jesus 
say, “ Let there be light?” there was light; let there be 
health? there was health. He left no time for second causes 
to operate—no room for human means to intervene. “He 
spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.” 

VI. There is no evidence of an attempt, on the part of 
Christ or his apostles, to perform a miracle in which they 
were accused of having failed. It is notoriously true of the 
wonderful works ascribed to the tomb of the Abbé Paris, for 
example, that the cases in which any beneficial effects 
resulted to the applicants were very inconsiderable in num- 
ber, compared with those in which there was a manifest 
and total failure. But although the ministry of Christ lasted 
between three and four years, during which he was continu- 
ally resorted to by multitudes, with a great variety of cases, 
seeking his miraculous aid; and although the ministry of 
his apostles continued many years longer, during which time 
they are said to have been attested by “ divers miracles,” no 
case is mentioned in which an attempt was unsuccessful, or 
in which an applicant was denied. The language of the 
history in relation to the multitudes that applied to Christ 
is continually, “he healed them au.” .The enemies of the 
gospel, who were eye-witnesses of these applicants, did never 
maintain that the power of Christ, or of his disciples, was 
exerted unsuccessfully in a single instance. Had such an 
event taken place, would they not have discovered it? Had 
they discovered it, would they not have proclaimed it far 
and wide? Would any of the books, written against chris- 
tianity in the first centuries, have omitted so important a 
fact? 'The total absence of all insinuation of such a thing, 


164 LECTURE VI. 


in the whole controversy between the primitive Christians 
and their adversaries, is certain evidence that an unsuccessful 
attempt was never made, and that an unsuccessful appli- 
cant was not known.” 

Now, on the supposition that the miraculous doings 
recorded in the gospel were all a cheat, what a miracle is 
here! 'That all was contrivance, and imposture, and acci- 
dent, and yet not an enemy ever detected an instance of 
failure; that the machinery was never out of place, out of 
time, or out of order; that it was equally successful in all 
cases, equally ready at all seasons, always invisible, yet 
always at hand, and always instantaneously effectual—what 
a miracle! Who is the man of weak credulity 2—the 
believer or the infidel ? 

VII. The length of time, during which the Saviour and 
his apostles professed to perform miracles, should be specially 
considered. Seventy years elapsed between the commence- 
ment of the ministry of Christ and the death of the last of 
the apostles. During all this interval, the miraculous oifts, 
in question, were exercised. Now, as every repetition in 
case of imposture multiplies the dangers of detection, and 
every extension of time makes it the more difficult to keep 
up the confederated plan, it is no inconsiderable evidence of 
the genuineness of the miracles of the gospel, that they 
continued to be wrought and inspected during a period of 
so many years, and yet so securely. 

This consideration is the more important when you reflect 
that the miracles were not confined to one or two places ; 
were not wrought in little villages, or among the poor and 
ignorant only—but that the scenes of most of them were in 


cng enmasnmarnrimeeeenemrr ae ee A Ce ese 


* The case mentioned in Mat. xvii. 14—21, would have been an example 
of failure, had the narrative ended with the inability of the disciples. But 


the Master performed what they, being as yet in their noviciate, had attempted 
in vain. 


LECTURE VI. 165 


the chief cities of the Roman empire. Instead of remaining 
together in one place, or moving together wherever they 
desired to produce an impression, and then confining them- 
selves to such places as might be most easily deceived; the 
apostles, with singular folly, on the supposition that they 
were confederated for an imposture, separated to all parts of 
the world. 'They went alone to the most populous, polished, 
and enlightened cities. They put themselves in the most 
public places of those cities; thus making combination im- 
possible, and rendering their success, as mere counterfeiters, 
perfectly miraculous. 

VIII. We have the most perfect certainty that the miracles 
of the gospel underwent, at the time they were wrought, 
and for a long time after, the most rigid examination from 
those who had every opportunity of scrutinizing their 
character. Forged miracles may pass current, where power 
and authority, or the favourable dispositions of the people 
protect them from too close an inspection. But let the power 
of the magistrate, the authority of public opinion, and the 
partialities of those concerned, be once leagued in opposition, 
and the imposture cannot escape. Such was the league 
against the miracles in question. Never was the power of 
the state in more perfect alliance with public opinion, or more 
zealously supported by all the envy, hatred, and malice, of 
which popular feeling is capable, than when it set ‘its face 
against the gospel. Not only were these miracles exposed, 
by their great publicity, to universal examination, but they 
were of such a nature that any mind was capable of examin- 
ing them. Not only did they present themselves to the wise 
and the great, in the chief places of concourse, and in the 
great cities of the world; but they were such as necessarily 
provoked every description of scrutiny. Being performed in 
avowed support of a religion which could not be successful 
without destroying the whole hierarchy of the Jews, and 
advancing its victories over the ruins of heathenism; they 


14 


166 LECTURE VI. 


roused at once into united and stern opposition, all the civil 
power of the governments; all the enmity of Jewish 
and Pagan priesthoods; all the partialities, and prejudices, 
and national attachments, of all people. The enmity of the 
scribes and Pharisees; of the doctors, and lawyers, and 
priests, of the Jews, must have been fired with peculiar 
indignation. As miracles multiplied and disciples increased, 
the deepest interest must have been awakened in relation to 
them among all classes of society. This we know to have 
been the case. Hence it is certain that they did not escape 
the most thorough examination ; that all the ingenuity and 
diligence of contemporaries and eye-witnesses, animated. by 
the strongest motives, and favoured by every conceivable 
advantage, were enlisted in the trial; and this, not for a day, 
or a week, or a month, but as long as miracles were pro- 
fessed, and a hope of detection remained. 

IX. It is a matter deserving of special remembrance, that 
the adversaries of the gospel were placed in the most favoura- 
ble circumstances for a thorough investigation of the reality 
of its miracles, by their being published and appealed to 
ymmediately after, and in the very places where, they occur- 
red. ‘Ihe miracles ascribed to the founder of the society of 
Jesuits are sufficiently answered by the fact that, during his 
life, and for many years after his death, nothing was heard 
of them. Those of Francis Xavier, one of the first disci- 
ples of Loyola, are deficient in evidence, because, having 
been wrought (as it is stated) in the far distant East, they 
were first published in the western world; and the narratives, 
if they ever reached the places to which they relate, could 
not have been known there till long after the opportunity 
of a close investigation had passed away, and must have - 
been published among a people too indifferent to be at the 
pains of inquiring into their truth or falsehood. But the 
miracles of the gospel were published immediately after, and 
in the very places of, their occurrence. It is true, indeed, 


LECTURE VI. 167 


that the earliest gospel, that of St. Matthew, is not by any 
supposed to have been published earlier than the seventh or 
eighth year after the death of Christ. Supposing this to 
have been the first publication of the miracles, it was suffi- 
ciently near their date to afford every reasonable opportu- 
nity of investigation. 

But we know from the gospel history, that during the 
three years of the Saviour’s ministry, and all the while the 
apostles laboured, their miracles were notorious. The 
scribes and Pharisees met in council on the subject. Many, 
unable to deny them, ascribed them to demoniacal power. 
Herod, when he heard of them, said: “This is John the 
Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty 
works do show forth themselves in him.”* The fame of the — 
miracles of Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry, “went 
throughout all Syria,” so that multitudes, with all kinds of 
afflictions, flocked to him from all quarters to be healed, and, 
when healed, returned to publish still more widely the 
works of their deliverer.t The raising of Lazarus was so 
widely published in Bethany, where it took place, and in the 
region round about, that, in a few days, “much people of 
the Jews came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might 
see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.”t 
When, at the word of Peter and John, the impotent man, at 
the gate of the temple, had been made whole, they imme- 
diately published the miracle on the spot, to the multitude of 
Jerusalem; appealing to it in evidence of the power of their 
Lord. “His name (said they), through faith in his name, 
hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, 
the faith which is by him, hath given him this perfect sound- 
ness in the presence of you all.”§ Only about fifty days 
was Jesus risen from the dead, when his disciples began to 
proclaim every where, and first at Jerusalem, among those 


* Mat. xiv. l and 2; + Ib. iv.23—5. + John, xii.9. § Acts, iii, 16: 


168 LECTURE VI. 


who slew him and had set the guard at the sepulchre, this 
chief of miracles. They appealed to it in every discourse ; 
challenged every examination ; defied all contradiction. All 
the miracles of Christ, they declared before the very people 
whom they asserted to have witnessed them. “Ye men of 
Israel, hear these words (said Peter); Jesus of Nazareth, a 
man approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders, 
and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye 
yourselves also know.”* How eminently this bold and im- 
mediate publication must have aided, as well as stimulated, 
the investigation of the enemies of the gospel, furnishing 
those, who had every disposition, and all power, and all 
intelligence and cunning, with every opportunity to try the 
minutest circumstance, and ferret out every clue to the 
detection of imposture, I need not show. 

X. Now consider, who the agents were, whose works were 
obliged to stand such trials. Had they been men of learning, 
of power, of wealth, accustomed to any thing that was 
calculated to furnish them for the work of imposing upon 
mankind, the case would not be quite so strong. But, on the 
supposition that Christ was a mere man and pretender, what 
was he or what were his apostles, by education or standing 
in society, that they should be qualified for such an unparal- 
leled effort of ingenuity and concealment? Is there any 
miracle more marvellous than that which is involved in the 
idea of a poor and unlearned individual of Nazareth, followed 
by twelve obscure, unlettered Jews, for the most part accus- 
tomed to nothing but their nets and fishing-boats, having 
practised such a system of imposture, under such circum- 
stances of risk and exposure, without an individual among 
their numerous enemies to discover their secret, or detect 
the deceit ? ; 

XI. Consider, moreover, that notwithstanding all that 
Sa 

* Acts, ii, 22. 


LECTURE VI. 169 


was done to entice and intimidate the early Christians who 
were eye-witnesses of what Jesus or his apostles wrought, 
none were induced to confess themselves deceived ; or that 
they had seen any thing but truth in those miraculous gifts, 
by which they had been persuaded to embrace the gospel. 
It is not asserted that none who professed to be converted 
from judaism or paganism to christianity, ever renounced 
the cause of Christ. 'The persecution of enemies was some- 
times successful in forcing their victims to forsake the gospel, 
and do sacrifice to idols, rather than be burned at the stake, 
or thrown to wild beasts. But the case cannot be brought 
of one such unhappy deserter, whether man or woman, 
having been persuaded to bear witness against the christian 
miracles. A convert, after having united himself to the 
apostles ; been received to the fellowship of the church ; and 
become an agent in advancing its cause ; must have become 
acquainted with its secrets.. He must have often looked 
behind the scenes, and had many opportunities of knowing 
the hidden machinery by which the imposition, if any existed, 
was carried on. Had the evidence of contrivance and 
forgery been ever seen by the primitive christians; those 
who deserted the cause had every motive to divulge it. 
Their own indignation at having been deceived ; the rewards 
which they might have expected from the enemies of 
christianity, would have been sufficiently persuasive. That 
none ever went a step further than simply to give up the 
profession of the gospel, through fear of torture; that none 
ever turned round upon the apostles by whose miracles they 
had been convinced, and charged them with fraud ; is abso- 
lutely inexplicable on any other supposition than their 
thorough conviction that fraud did not exist. 

This evidence is specially strong in the case of Judas 
Iscariot. He was one of the twelve who always companied 
with Jesus. He was the treasurer of the family—admitted 


to every opportunity of knowing whatever secrets may have 
14* 


179 LECTURE VI. 


belonged to the works of Christ. That he knew what and 
where the imposition was, if any existed in the gospel 
miracles, cannot be doubted. 'That he was treacherous 
enough to betray it, is manifest from his having betrayed 
the Master himself. 'That he had every inducement to do 
so, none can question who knows how precious the chief 
priests and Pharisees would have considered such a disclo- 
sure. Did he come forward with any such thing? He 
delivers up the person of Christ ; does he accuse his charac- 
ter ?—deny his works ?—expose his cause? 'The Saviour is 
arraigned before his powerful enemies—witnesses are called. 
Where is Judas? False witnesses are brought. Where is 
Judas? Has he nothing to say against him whom he has 
already sold for thirty pieces of silver? The enemies of 
Christ cannot be ignorant of the importance of such a witness; 
nor can he be ignorant of the gain that would accrue from 
his delivering such testimony. But he is not there. The 
Jews never pretended to have obtained any accusation from 
that traitor. Not a word is spoken, in all the controversy with 
primitive adversaries, about the treachery of Judas as having 
turned to their advantage. On the contrary, it is written in 
the gospel history, and was never denied by those men, that 
he not only abstained from any accusation, but in the strong- 
est possible manner confessed the truth and excellence of 
Jesus and his cause. Under the stings of conscience, and in 
spite of the covetousness of his disposition, he went and 
delivered up the money he had received for his iniquity into 
the hands of those who had paid it. Nor was this all. He 
was constrained to confess to the chief priests and elders, 
whose wrath he knew it would inflame to the uttermost, 
saying: “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent 
blood.” “ And he cast down the pieces of silver in the tem- 
ple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”* Stronger 
pi lel a sc ala 


* Mat. xxvii: 3, 4, 5. 


LECTURE VI. 171 


evidence of truth and righteousness, it is impossible for any 
works or any cause to possess, 

XII. Having considered in another place the character of 
the individuals by whom the miracles of the gospel were 
performed, it is important now to remark the character of 
the miracles themselves. Wither they were real miracles, or 
false. If false, the individuals who performed them could 
not, by any excess of infatuation, have supposed them true. 
They must, therefore, have been the deliberate asserters of a 
divine commission, which they knew had not been given 
them; and the persevering exhibiters of credentials which 
they knew were forgeries. Hence it is not possible that 
they could have been honest men; much less, good men. 
And inasmuch as they must have acted from some motive 
and with some object in view, and we cannot suppose that 
such impostors would be sacrificing themselves merely out 
of a benevolent disposition to promote the happiness of their 
fellow-creatures and relieve their woes; it must have been 
some object of ambition or of gain which they were pur- 
suing. ,We do not pause now to show what perfect idiots 
they mut have been to select such a scheme out of ambi- 
tious or pecuniary motives. But since, on the supposition 
that their works were fictitious, we can imagine no other, 
the question arises, how do these miracles correspond with 
the idea that the agents were aisha, and their motives 
ambitious or covetous ? | 

Now I maintain, that considering how many and various 
are the miracles recorded in the New Testament, in what 
various circumstances and by what various agents they were 
performed, and that not for a month or year only, but many 
years, in full assemblages of enemies; it would have been 
quite miraculous, supposing them false, had they been in 
every instance garnished with a concealment so perfect, that 
nothing low, or mean, or undignified—nothing betraying 
the spirit of designing, ambitious, or covetous men—should 


172 LECTURE VI. 


ever have been manifested. .'T'ake up the accounts of any 
confessedly fictitious miracles, in any age or country, and 
you will soon detect the hand-writing of the spirit and mo- 
tives that produced them. But most singularly—contrary 
to all experience and all law, on the assumption that the 
miracles of Christ and his apostles were fictitious, you dis- 
cover nothing in them but what is entirely worthy of the 
majesty, holiness, justice, and goodness of that God, by 
whose power they professed to be wrought. The most 
perfect correspondence appears between the exalted and holy 
character and office in which the Saviour and his apostles 
claimed to be received, and the works by which their claim 
was sustained. Propriety, dignity, disinterestedness, benevo- 
lence of the loveliest spirit, and compassion of the tenderest 
sensibility, distinguished them. Not the least trace is mark- 
ed on them of any ambitious or other suspicious motive. 
Though the Lord Jesus and his apostles were compassed 
about with reproachful and persecuting enemies, you discern 
nothing vindictive or resentful. Though always in personal 
poverty, “despised and rejected -of men,” their miracles 
discover nothing ostentatious—nothing to gratify curiosity 
—no anxiety for repute—no aim at wealth or temporal pow- 
er. While feeding the hungry by thousands, Jesus continued 
in poverty. While, as the good Shepherd, ever following 
the lost sheep through suffering and want, that he might 
administer to their necessities, he showed no sign of any 
care for himself. Now, if Jesus and his apostles did not 
work miracles in truth; if their high claims were false, and 
they consequently were prosecuting a scheme of imposture 
with selfish purposes, either of ambition or gain; there is 
something in all this singularly unaccountable—very unlike 
the laws if nature—exceedingly miraculous. 

XIII. But that the miracles of the gospel were not ficti- | 
tious, but genuine and undeniable, we have the plainest and 
strongest confession from the primitive adversaries of Christ 


LECTURE VI. Lis 


and his cause. In the first place; we have a very conclu- 
sive and impressive confession, though silent, from the whole 
Jewish nation and the whole Gentile world. It consists in 
this unquestionable fact, that no individual among them 
ever detected, or was ‘publicly supposed to have detected, an 
imposture. You are to remember that these miracles were 
addressed to the senses; performed in open daylight; with 
all possible publicity; that they were exceedingly numerous 
and various ; wrought by many different agents; in many 
and remote countries ; before citizens of the most enlightened 
cities, and in the most enlightened age of the Roman empire; 
that those of the Apostles did not cease until nearly seventy 
years from their commencement, during all which time they 
must have endured the very closest scrutiny that the com- 
bined forces of learning, enmity, and political authority, 
could institute. You are to remember, also, what kind of 
men were those who performed them, and that the accounts 
of them which we now possess were published far and wide 
in the very places where the works were done, and among 
the very people who are said to have witnessed them. You 
are to remember, for example, the miracle of the gift of 
tongues on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, how it was 
published abroad in Jerusalem and the whole empire, that, 
on that day, an immense multitude of people of all languages 
were amazed at hearing the twelve apostles, who were well 
known as unlettered Jews, preaching the gospel in so many 
different languages, that all, whether Cretes, Arabians, Meso- 
potamians, or of any other name, all heard, in their respec- 
tive tongues, the wonderful works of God. You are to con- 
sider, that in publishing an account of this astonishing 
transaction, as was done by the apostles in all their preach- 
ing, and a few years afterwards, by Luke in the Acts of the 
Apostles; an open, honest appeal was made to all the hun- 
dreds of thousands who had been assembled on that day in 
Jerusalem, to come forth and deny that these things did then 


174 ae LECTURE VI. 


and there occur. Hence was every possible facility afforded 
for the detection of imposture. Without a miracle for its 
concealment, it could not have escaped. Had there been a 
detection with regard to but one of all the miracles, we 
should have heard of it. Judea, and Greece, and Rome, 
would have rung with the news. The books of Jewish 
and Heathen adversaries would have reiterated its publica- 
tion in illuminated pages and golden capitals. All the 
generations of succeeding adversaries would have quoted it 
as one of the dearest bequests of classic antiquity. Is there 
any such thing? I sound the inquiry through the whole 
region of Jewish, and Grecian, and Roman history, and I 
hear nothing in answer, but the echo of my own voice: 
“Ts there any such thing?’ 1 must answer it myself. 
There is no such thing, in ‘all that has come to us from 
antiquity, as even a pretence to the detection of imposture 
in the gospel miracles. 

This I think you will join me in considering a very im- 
pressive and conclusive confession, though a silent one, from 
the whole Jewish nation and Gentile world, to the undeniable 
reality of the miracles of Christ and his apostles. It is all the 
evidence we could with any reason expect from enemies. 
When Deists bid us produce the testimony of enemies, as 
well as friends, it is perfectly unreasonable to require that we 
should find enemies, in those days of bitter hostility to chris- 
lianity, positively acknowledging that it was attested by 
miracles. That they did not deny it ; that Jews and Gentiles; 
that the Mosaic and the Pagan iiesthoods’ ; that the Phari- 
sees of Jerusalem, and the philosophers of Corinth, and 
Ephesus, and Rome, were silent, on this head, one would 
suppose, is a great deal to get from such adversaries. 

But we can go further. Unreasonable, as it is, to demand 
more positive testimony from enemies, we can meet the de- 
mand. Having, in a previous lecture, ascertained the credi- 
bility of the gospel history, we may now appeal to it for 


LECTURE VI. 175 


the acknowledgment of enemies. Peter on the day of 
Pentecost assumed the fact that the multitudes of Israel, to 
whom he was speaking, acknowledged that Jesus of Naza- 
reth had approved himself among them by “miracles, and 
wonders, and signs.”* “This man doeth many miracles,”t 
was the confession of the chief priests and Pharisees, in 
council, relative to Jesus. “ What shall we do to them? 
(said the Jewish rulers, in relation to Peter and John) For 
that indeed a notable miracle has been done by them is 
manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot 
deny w.”"t You know that the only way of escape the Jewish 
rulers could find, while they could not deny the miracles, 
was to ascribe them to magic, or the power of demons. “ He 
casteth out devils by Beelzebub,” &c. But we have similar 
testimony, without recourse to the scriptures. The Jewish 
rabbies, in the Talmud, acknowledge these miracles, and 
pretend that they were wrought by magic, or by the power 
attendant upon a certain use of the name Jehovah, called 
tetragrammaton, which, they pretend, Jesus stole out of the 
temple.§ But we have positive testimony also from Hea- 
thens. Celsus, who wrote in the latter part of the second 
century, not only allows the principal facts of the gospel 
history, but acknowledges that Christ wrought micacles, by 
which he engaged great multitudes to adhere to him as the 
Messiah. 'That these miracles were really performed, so far 
from denying, he tries to account for by ascribing them to 
magic, which (he says) Christ learned in Egypt. 


* Acts, ii. 22. + John, xi. 47. t Acts, iv. 16. 

§ Quod Christus per hoc nomen quoque miracula,sua ediderit, probavit ante 
multos annos Purchetus. Ejus tamen fabule illustrande causa, hoc addo, 
quod apud Talmudicus reperi. Ut Christus in ea historia refertur descriptum 
Shemhamphorasch (id est, nomen expositum, quod est ipsum nomen my), in- 
clusisse in discissam cutem pedis, et ex templo eduxisse, ut sic per ejus vim 
miracula postmodum ediderit. Buxtorf. 

N Lardner, iv. 120—130. 


176 LECTURE VI. 


Hierocles, president of Bythinia, and a persecutor of Chris- 
tians, in a work written against christianity, does not deny 
the miracles of Christ, but compares them with those which 
he pretended had been wrought a long time before, by one 
Apollonius, of 'T'yanea, a heathen, complaining at the 
same time that Christians made so much ado about the 
works of Jesus, as to worship him for God.* 

Julian, the emperor, in the fourth century, acknowledges 
the miracles of Christ, and contents himself with trying to 
depreciate their importance. “Jesus,” he says, “did nothing 
worthy of fame, unless any one-can suppose that curing the 
lame and the blind, and exorcising demons in the villages of 
Bethsaida, are some of the greatest works.” He’ acknow 
ledges that Jesus had a sovereign power over impure spirits, 
and that. he walked on the surface of the deep.t Now, it 
is a matter of no little wonder, to say the least of it, that in 
this nineteenth century, men should be so sagacious as to 
discover that Christ and his apostles did not attest their 
claims and doctrines with miraculous powers, when learned, 
sagacious, and sufficiently hostile unbelievers of the earliest 
centuries of christianity, having opportunities for discovering 
the state of the case such as they cannot pretend to, were 
constrained to acknowledge precisely the contrary. I marvel 
that Celsus, and Porphyry, and Hierocles, and Julian, and 
the Scribes, and Pharisees, can rest in their graves, when 
such reflections are cast upon the zeal and talents with which 
they searched for imposture in the works of Christ. 

XIV. But we have even better testimony than that of 
enemies. Had Celsus found himself not only unable to deny 
the miracles of Christ, but persuaded, by the mere force of 
their truth, to renounce heathenism, and consecrate his life, 
in the face of persecution and death, to the service of the 
gospel, would not his testimony have been greatly increased 


ec a en et ed 


* Lardner, iv. 254. + Lardner, vol. iv. 332—342. 


LECTURE VI, 177 


im importance? Would not the very fact of his becoming a 
Christian, under the power of evidence, be the consideration, 
which, instead of injuring his testimony as that of a friend, 
would have given it peculiar force as that of a friend who 
was once an enemy? 'Then if I find cases precisely cor- 
responding with this—if I present you with hundreds and 
thousands of such cases, and tens of thousands—will you 
not own that their positive testimony is far stronger than 
even that of the adversaries whom we have cited, and the 
strongest of which in the nature of things we could be pos- 
sessed? I find precisely such cases in the apostles of Christ. 
They are regarded as interested witnesses, because they 
were friends. But what made them friends? Were they 
not men like others? Jews, like others’? Consider Paul, 
once a fierce persecutor of Christians! What made him a 
friend? Consider the three thousand, converted from bitter, 
persecuting Judaism to the faith of Christ, on the day of 
Pentecost. What made friends and disciples of them? 
Was it that they expected any earthly honours or gains from 
taking up the cross of a crucified Master, in whose wonder- 
ful works they did not believe? Was it that they coveted 
reproach, enjoyed suffering, and loved death? or because, by 
careful consideration, they were so convinced that the mira- 
cles of Christ, especially that of his rising from the dead, 
were true, that no certainty of persecution, no sacrifices of 
property, character, friends, or life, were sufficient to prevent 
them from confessing him before men? ‘To these add the 
hundreds of thousands, who, during the ministry of the 
apostles, from having been Jews or Heathens, and ene- 
mies of the gospel, became its devoted followers and heroic 
confessors. They bore witness, by word and deed, in 
torture and death, to the great fact that the miracles of 
Christ were true. And what is their testimony worth ? 
What possible motive can you assign for the total change 


which took place in all their habits, attachments, manners, 
15 


178 LECTURE VI. 


and affections, when they became Christians, other than that 
of deep, solemn conviction? 'T’o suppose they were not con- 
vinced, is to suppose that they made the most tremendous 
sacrifices, not only without motive, but in direct opposition 
to the most powerful motives of the human breast. 'They 
well knew the poverty, and persecution, and martyrdom, to 
which they exposed themselves. Why, then, did they become 
Christians? When afterwards pursued as the off-scourimg 
of all things, and pests of the world; when no name was so 
odious as that of Christian; when to bring those who bore 
it to torture was universally accounted meritorious ; when it 
was the study of magistrates and soldiers to invent new 
modes of tormenting them; when thousands of all ranks 
and ages were daily slain for the testimony of Jesus, who, 
by the act of a moment, could have stilled the storm to perfect 
peace; why did they persist and die? ‘To pretend to explain 
their steadfastness, except on the supposition of their having 
firmly believed what they professed, were perfectly absurd. 
But did they not know? Living in the same age with the 
apostles; living in the very places where the miracles were 
performed; they, if any on earth, must have possessed the 
opportunity of discovering the truth with regard to them. 
We have, then, the impressive fact of hundreds of thousands 
of the adversaries of the gospel, in the first century of 
Christianity, Jews, and Greeks, and Romans, many of whom 
had been persecutors of Christians, bearing the most positive 
testimony to, what they had every opportunity of investiga- 
ting, the reality of the miracles of Christ; and sealing their 
testimony in the renouncing of all that was dear to them by 
birth, habit, or education, and embracing christianity at the 
expense of the keenest reproach and the most painful death. 
Testimony. stronger or more undeniable than this, 1 cannot 
imagine. If this be not sufficient to-prove a plain matter of 
fact, such, for example as that Lazarus was seen alive after 
he was known to have been dead; then farewell all history 


LECTURE V1. 179 


and all knowledge. Nothing can be reasonably believed, 
except on evidence of sense, and hardly then, after reject- 
ing this, | 

We have now arrayed as many of the materials of the 
argument for the gospel miracles as our time would permit. 
It only remains that we put them together into one view, so 
as to enable you to appreciate their united strength. I know 
not how to do this in a better way, than to take the supposi- 
tion that all the miracles of Christ and of his apostles were 
fictions, and consequently their authors, deliberate deceivers 
and then consider how far the supposition will carry us. 
Let usdoso. You understand the supposition. What must 
be believed by those who will maintain it 2 

They must believe that Jesus and his apostles, being 
obscure, unlettered Jews, without a single circumstance to 
give them influence, were so perfectly silly and mad as to 
flatter themselves that they could set up a scheme of religion, 
which, though in utter contradiction to the habits, passions, 
prejudices, and institutions, of all the world, should succeed 
in overturning the religious systems and institutions of the 
most enlightened nations ; and yet that, with this unacounta- 
ble infatuation, they were so singularly wise, as to maintain, 
throughout all the miracles which they professed to work in 
proof of their system, the most perfect consistency with the 
dignity and disinterestedness of the office they assumed, and 
with the majesty, holiness, and goodness of that God in 
whose name they professed to come. 

They must believe that Jesus and his apostles were so 
wicked, as to attempt an imposture which involved:-not only 
continual dishonesty, but downright blasphemy, and _ this 
from motives of mere ambition or avarice; and yet that 
during the space of seventy years they kept up such an 
invariable show of eminent goodness and disinterestedness, 
as in all their works to manifest not the smallest appearance 
of selfishness or any evil design ; but, on the contrary, the 


180 LECTURE VI. 


utmost evidence of self-denial, of self-humiliation, of purity, 
of holiness, of the tenderest compassion, and the most labori- 
ous benevolence; so that even their enemies never brought 
inconsistency. to theiy charge. 

They must believe the apostles to have been so strangely 
_ in love, either with wealth, or honour, or power, or some- 
thing else, to be willing, even out of their obscurity and 
weakness, as to seek it by such a desperate schemé as that 
of christianity; and yet that, when honours were offered, 
they earnestly refused them; when they saw the triumph of 
their enemies in the upravey som of Christ, and that nothing 
awaited his followers but disgrace, poverty, and persecution, 
they persisted in advocating the cause of their fallen leader ; 
and when the storms of persecution grew darker and datker, 
and ruin and death were the certain consequences of perse- 
verance, and one word of confession would have saved them, 
such was their infatuated attachment to this scheme of im- 
posture, such their singular devotion to self, to honour, or 
wealth, or power, or something else, that they drove on from 
suffering to suffering, from shame to shame, ending at last 
their pursuit in a bitter death, with the full belief, as Jews, 
that in eternity they should be condemned to an awful retri- 
bution for their whole career. 

They must believe that while the apostles were so utterly 
destitute of common ingenuity that they selected precisely 
that kind of credential which it was the most difficult to 
forge, and instead of seeking, as other impostors would have 
done, private, or confined, or solitary places, for their mira- 
cles, chose those of the greatest resort and publicity, and then 
placed and left their miracles directly under the senses of the 
multitude; that while they had so little contrivance that 
instead of selecting a few masked friends, or the most igno- 
rant of the populace for witnesses, they seemed rather to 
prefer having hardly any witnesses but enemies, and those 
frequently of the highest, most literate, and powerful classes ; 


LECTURE VI. 181 


that while so utterly wanting in the common cunning of 
impostors, that instead of keeping their doings to one or a 
few places, they performed them any where, upon any sub- 
jects, however suddenly or confusedly presented, and, instead 
of ceasing when they had done a few with success, continued 
the hazard for many years, in innumerable instances, and 
while they were widely separated from one another ; I say 
it must be believed, that Christ and his apostles, with all 
these evidences of extraordinary idiocy or lunacy, were yet 
so wonderfully ingenious, wary, and wise; so singularly 
skilled in imposture; so learned in human nature and the 
world; such a marvellous match for the combined efforts of 
the wise, and mighty, and diligent, of Judea, and Greece, 
and Rome ; laid their plans so deeply ; concerted their move. 
ments so skilfully ; kept their secrets so closely ; carried on 
the whole complicated plot for many years so consistently, that 
though ever watched while together and while separated; con- 
tinually scrutinized by all sorts of witnesses and of enemies ; 
none could ever detect the least flaw in their pretensions ; 
none could discover that the blind did not see; the lame did 
not walk; the dead did not rise. On the contrary, the peo- 
ple of Bethany were so deceived as actually to believe that 
they daily saw one of their townsmen, whom they knew to 
have died, living and eating among them. 'The people of 
Jerusalem were so deceived as to believe, that they saw a 
man whom they knew to have been lame from his birth, 
daily walking among them perfectly well. The five thousand 
were fully persuaded that they did all eat and were filled with 
a few loaves and fishes. The people of Syria were so 
tricked as really to believe that their multitudes of sick with 
divers diseases and torments, whom they had brought to 
Jesus, went home with them perfectly well, without an ex- 
ception. Yea, the whole Jewish and Heathen world was so 
imposed upon by these unlettered, simple, despised, persecu- 


ted Jews, as tacitly to confess the genuineness of their mira- 
15* 


182 LECTURE VI. 


cles. Philosophers and rabbies, when they attacked cliris- 
tianity, did not deny it ; several of them positively, in their 
books, acknowledged it; and hundreds of thousands in the 
age of the apostles, out of the most polished cities and most 
respectable classes, were so entirely taken captive and spell- 
bound by the magic scheme of these weak men, that they 
forsook all and took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and 
yielded themselves to fire and sword and wild beasts, vather 
than not confess and follow Christ. 

Such are the wonderful things; such the violations of the 
laws of nature and of common sense; such the wicked and 
contradictory miracles which necessarily follow as true, az 
soon as the miracles of christianity are rejected as false. 
Now, tell me on which side the charge of credulity lies with 
the greatest weight. Now, give the reason why our modern 
unbelievers, instead of meeting the testimony of the gospel 
miracles in front, are so conscientiously scrupulous never to 
know any thing about it, and always expend their ingenuity 
in ridiculing the dignity, or in picking out what they would 
represent as inconsistencies in the books, of scripture. Now 
explain the singular phenomenon that the grand high-priest 
of modern infidelity should have invented the convenient 
principle which sceptical philosophy had ever before so 
paintully sighed after, that no testimony can prove a miracle. 
Ah! yes. It was his only hope. The testimony of the 
christian miracles is perfect. It is so overwhleming, that if 
there be any difficulty about them, it arises from the very 
brightness of their evidence itself. It is almost inconceiva- 
ble that such works, wrought so publicly and frequently, and 
with such incontrovertible marks of a divine hand, should 
not have made more converts; that all who beheld them did 
hot yield at once to the great Teacher whom they attested, 
and espouse his cause. But the explanation is not difficult. 
The human heart is depraved enough for the most desperate 
rejection of such a master as the Lord Jesus. Men will go 


LECTURE VI. 183 


to the greatest lengths of folly and unbelief to gratify their 
passions, foster their pride, retain their prejudices, and escape 
the necessity of making sacrifices for conscience’s sake. ‘The 
truth that so many Jews and Heathens, with this blaze of 
testimony before them, did not submit to the gospel, is not so 
astonishing as what is seen every day among ourselves : 
persons believing the New Testament, and that Christ is the 
only Saviour of sinners—that eternal blessedness awaits 
those who follow him, and eternal wo those who neglect his 
salvation—and. yet, for all practical ends, as unmoved by 
these truths as if they were fables—as little engaged in the 
service of Christ as if they had never heard his name. 

But we must conclude. I trust you will henceforth allow 
me to consider the miracles of the gospel as proved to be 
genuine. If so, we must consider the credentials of Christ 
and his apostles as acknowledged. 'They were therefore 
what they professed to be, divinely commissioned and in- 
spired teachers. God was with them. What they published 
as a revelation from God, we are consequently bound to 
receive as a revelation from God. 'That publication is con- 
tained in the New Testament. We have already ascertained 
the authenticity and credibility of the New Testament as 
containing it. We cease, therefore, this evening, with the 
conclusion that the religion published in the New ‘Testament 
is a revelation from God. 

May the greatest and best of all the works of the Lord Jesus 
be wrought in all of us; even the blessed work of his grace, 
awakening the sinner from spiritual death ; changing, exalt- 
ing, purifying all the affections of his depraved nature ; open- 
ing the eyes of his understanding to behold the glory of God; 
leading him, in repentance and faith, to the cross for pardon. 
and peace ; shedding abroad in his heart the spirit of divine 
love; and causing him to rejoice in the blessed assurance 
of a crown of glory that fadeth not away ! 


184 LECTURE VII. 


LECTURE VIL 
PROPHECY. 


Havinea shown the genuineness of the miracles recorded 
in the New Testament, in attestation of the divine mission 
of the Saviour and his apostles; we are now to take up the 
subject of prophecy. But while proceeding to this additional 
source of evidence, it is important to be observed, that we 
do so, not because we consider the reasoning in proof of 
christianity, as a divine revelation, to which you have 
already listened, in any sense incomplete. Had our course 
of lectures been terminated with the last, the argument 
would have been brought to an incontrovertible issue. Hav- 
ing made out the great point that genuine miracles were 
wrought by the Saviour and his apostles, in attestation of 
the divine authority of what they did and taught; we have 
established, by necessary consequence, the great truth that 
Jesus Christ was a teacher come from God, and that the 
New Testament, as an authentic. publication of the religion 
taught by him, is to be received as containing a divine reve- 
lation of truth and duty. One line of evidence, therefore— 
one road leading to the scriptures, as the great central! 
fountain of divine truth, we have travelled over; and it has 
set us down beside the water of life. Now, if this were the 
only road, it would be amply sufficient. 'The loftiest intel- 
lect need not be ashamed ; the weakest need not fear to walk 
therein.* But God has not only furnished us with the 
plainest, but with the most various and abundant evidence. 


* A celebrated infidel once acknowledged that even atheism would be 
refuted by the proof of a single miracle of the gospel. Spinoza declared that 


LECTURE VII. 185 


And since the object of these lectures is not only to prove 
the divine authority of the gospel, but also to give you an 
idea of the diversified character of the many ways by which 
the proof may be established; we propose now to return 
from the position we have reached by the argument of our 
last lecture, and endeavour to arrive at it again by a route 
entirely different, We take up the prophecies, recorded in 
the scriptures, and shall endeavour to produce from them 
satisfactory and impressive evidence that in the Bible we 
have divine inspiration, and in Jesus Christ a teacher sent 
of God. 7 

What is a prophecy, according to the sense of scripture, 
and as we are now about to consider it? It is a declaration 
of future events, such ‘as no human wisdom or forecast is 
sufficient to make; depending on a knowledge of the innu- 
merable contingencies of human affairs, which belongs 
exclusively to the omniscience of God; so that, from its 
very nature, prophecy must be divine revelation. “ The 
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 

A prophecy, considered in itself, separately from its fulfil- 
ment, is no evidence of revelation. But as soon as fulfilled, 
it is complete. The hand of God in it, is then attested. 
The evidence that the person by whom it was uttered was 
under the influence of the spirit of divine omniscience, is 
finished. Then prophecy takes the place of miracle, and 
becomes at once the highest and most unquestionable proof, 
not only that the individual who declared it was the agent 
of communicating, in that particular, a divine revelation ; 
but also that a divine sanction is impressed upon that whole 


he would have broken his atheistic system to pieces, and embraced without 
repugnance the ordinary faith of Christians, could he have been persuaded 
of the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead! ‘Was it not a foresight of the 
arguments that would necessarily result from the proof of this miracle that 
prevented him from being persuaded of its truth ? 


186 LECTURE VII. 


system of religion with which his prophecies may be con- 
nected.* “Future contingencies, such, for example, as those 
which relate to the rise and fall of nations and states not yet 
in existence, or to the minute concerns of individuals not yet 
born, are secrets which it is evident no man or angel can 
penetrate, their causes being indeterminate, their relations 
with other things fluctuating and unknown. It follows, 
therefore, that the prediction of such contingent events 
cannot otherwise than proceed from God ; and farther, since 
God cannot without a violation of His perfect holiness and 
rectitude, visibly aid delusion and wickedness, the inference 
is equally cogent and necessary, that the accomplishment 
of predictions delivered by those who profess divine authority 
amounts to a full proof that they really possess the authority 
they assume. Other arguments may be evaded; other evi- 
dence may not convince. Strange effects (though not 
miraculous ones) may be produced. by other than divine. 
power.”+ But this can only be evaded by refusing to behold. 
jt, and only counterfeited by him who is ingenious enough 
to borrow omniscience in aid of imposture. “'To declare a 
thing shall come to be, long before it is in being (says Justin 
Martyr); and then to bring about the accomplishment of 
that very thing, according to the same declaration ; this, or 
nothing, is the work of God.” 

There are considerations connected with this particular 
source of evidence, which render it specially interesting and 
valuable. 

Prophecy furnishes an argument, the force of which is 
continually growing. The argument began, when first a 
single prophecy was fulfilled. It increased more and. more, 
as predictions and fulfilments multiplied. In the age of the 


eee ee Bee nee 


* “ All prophecies (says Hume) are real miracles, and as such only, can 
be admitted as proofs of any revelation.” —Philosophical Essays. 
t Gregory’s Letters. 


LECTURE VII. 187 


apostles, it was a powerful, as well as favourite weapon in 
proof of the gospel. But during that period, many new pre- 
dictions were published, and many ancient ones remained to 
be accomplished. 'The argument, consequently, was not yet 
at its height. It has been growing ever since, as one century 
after another has rolled out an additional fulfilment, or 
completed and enlarged those already advanced. We, in 
the present age, enjoy an expanse, and variety, and complete- 
ness of prophetic evidence far exceeding those which the 
chart of history presented to St. Paul. There is to us, a 
voice from the silent solitudes where Babylon and ‘Tyre once 
stood in pride, and reigned in power’ from the modern _his- 
tory of the prostrate Egypt; from the wonderful annals and 
present condition of the Jewish race; from the desolate state 
of the holy land and adjoining countries ;, from the rise and 
present aspect of the mystic Babylon—which the primitive 
christians had not the privilege of hearing. The force of 
this argument is yet to grow continually. A few years 
hence, in all probability, will exhibit it invested with a bright- 
ness and glory, compared with which, all present evidence 
will seem but as morning twilight. 'The end of the world 
will be its full maturity. Prophecy having begun with the 
history of sin, extends to the completion of its tragedy; and 
not till the blazing of the great conflagration when “ the 
earth and all that is therein shall be burned up,” will its 
every prediction be fulfilled; or the fulness of glory with 
which it was designed to show the truth of God in the gospel 
of his Son, be made to appear. . 

Now it is this continual growing of prophetic evidence 
that makes it so peculiarly valuable. The argument derived 
from miracles, though it could never have been more con- 
clusive than it is to us, was certainly more impressive to 
those who saw the miracles, or who lived in the age In 
which they were wrought. And it is very difficult for most 
persons to distinguish between the conclusiveness and the 


188 LECTURE VII. 


impressiveness of evidence. Because the lapse of centuries, 
by removing the christian miracles far from us, has dimin- 
ished the sensible effect they would otherwise have had 
upon our minds, it is very generally supposed that the same 
cause has enfeebled the evidence on which their genuineness 
is maintained. This idea, though unfounded entirely, is 
too natural, to those who do not think deeply, to be easily 
removed. But with regard to the evidence arising from 
prophecy, it cannot exist. Predictions, now in progress 
of fulfilment, are miracles which centuries can only render 
more certain and impressive. If there was a peculiar pri- 
vilege conferred on those who saw, in the miracles of Christ, 
manifest to sense, the wonderful works of God’s omnipo- 
tence ; there is also a similar privilege conferred on us, who, 
in consequence of the ever increasing fulfilment of prophecy, 
may see in the scriptures, more brilliantly illuminated than 
ever, the hand-writing of God’s omniscience. 

There is another peculiarity in much of the evidence 
from prophecy, which renders it peculiarly valuable. Jt is 
evidence before our eyes, addressed to our senses. By 
this we do not mean that the evidence arising from the 
miracles of Christ and his apostles would be any more 
conclusive, however much it would be increased in its 
wmpression on our minds, did we behold the miracles, instead 
of reading of them in well attested history. We believe, on 
the contrary, that this description of evidence, as addressed 
tous, is perfect. But still there is, and perhaps ever will be, 
a class of minds that, like the iui Thomas, will require 
to see before they will believe. Hither their indinieeestae or 
sluggishness prevents them from pursuing a line of argu- 
ment that would carry them back amidst the testimonies of 
antiquity; or else their willing scepticism, by ingenious 
sophistry, would shield them from all the evidence derived 
from miraculous agency, by the assumption that no testimony 
can prove a miracle. The utter fallacy of this position, we 


LECTURE VII. 189 


trust, was satisfactorily shown in a preceding lecture. But 
here are evidences with which, were it true, it could have 
no connexion. God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, has 
provided for all classes of mind, and all descriptions of infideli- 
ty; so that all unbelievers may be without excuse. The argu- 
ment from prophecy may be rendered brief enough for the 
most sluggish—tangible enough for the most obstinate oppo- 
sers of historical testimony. They have only to read in the 
Bible the predictions with regard to the once proud cities of 
Babylon and Tyre, or the once powerful empire of Egypt, and 
then to open their ears to the accounts which almost every 
wind conveys, or go and see for themselves the obscure rem- 
nants of the ruins of those cities, and of that once mighty 
empire ; they have only to read in the books of Moses, what, 
3300 years ago, was foretold of the history of the Jewish 
people; and then to lift up their eyes, and behold the present 
condition and the notorious peculiarities of that wonderful 
race; to see that the prophecies of the Bible have been 
plainly and most particularly fulfilled—fulfilled in a manner 
which no human sagacity could have foreseen, which no 
human power could have brought to pass; and consequently 
that the authors of those prophecies were inspired men, and 
the religion they taught was the word of God. In these and 
various other examples, which might be adduced, of the 
present and visible fulfilment of prophecy, the miracles of 
the Jewish and Christian dispensations are in fact continued 
among us. “Men are sometimes disposed to think that if 
they could see a miracle wrought in their own sight, they 
would believe the gospel without delay, and obey it unre- 
servedly. They know not their own hearts. ‘ If they believe 
not Moses and the prophets, neither would they believe 
though one rose from the dead. But in the whole range of 
prophecy now fulfilling before their eyes, they have in fact a 
series of divine interpositions, not precisely of the nature of 
miracles, in the sense of brief, and instant, and visible sus- 


190 LECTURE VII. 


pensions of the laws of nature, but evidently so in the sense 
of supernatural interference, in the rise and fall of cities, and 
nations, and empires; in the arrangement of times and circum- 
stances ; in that wonderful display of infinite foreknowledge 
and infinite power, apparent in the control of the wills of un- 
numbered free and accountable agents to a certain result.”* 
In our last lecture we stated that the religion of the Bible 
is the only one which, on its first introduction, appealed to 
miracles in evidence of the divine authority of its teach- 
ers. We make a similar remark, with still more evident 
truth, with regard to prophecy. 'The sublime appeal of men, 
professing to be commissioned of God, to the events of 
thousands of years thereafter, as witnesses of their truth ; 
the moral grandeur of that appeal, which, after having 
deposited in the hands of nations, a prediction of minute 
transactions, which the innumerable contingencies of a 
long retinue of centuries are to bring out, stakes its whole 
cause upon a perfect fulfilment, thus resting itself singly 
upon the omniscience and omnipotence of God, and separa- 
ting to an infinite distance all possibility of human support ; 
this is a dignity to which nothing but the inspiration of the 
scriptures can pretend; a noble daring on which nothing 
else was ever known to venture. The corruptions of chris. 
tianity, as existing in the church of Rome, have attempted 
to prop up their feeble foundations on the credit of miracles, 
easily refuted indeed, but widely boasted of. But prophecy, 
even the effrontery of that “man of sin,” “ whose coming 
(saith St. Paul) is with all deceivableness of unrighteous- 
ness,” has never pretended to. Although Mohammed did 
not profess to support his pretensions by miracles, and the 
Koran expressly concedes that miraculous power was not 
given him; yet his followers, hundreds of years after his 
death, related many miracles as having been performed 


* Wilson’s Lectures. 


LECTURE VII. 191 


under his hand. But that Mohammed, though styled the 
prophet of God, never declared a prophecy, on the fulfilment 
of which he rested his claims to inspirations, none ever 
asserted. 

The history of pagan nations, indeed, abounds with stories 
of auguries, and oracles, and detached predictions; but it 
was with no reference to the establishment of paganism that 
they were uttered. On the contrary, the fact that paganism 
was established already, gave them all their reverence. But 
what an immeasurable distance separates all the pretended 
oracles of paganism, from the dignity of the prophecies in 
the Bible. The avowed end of the former was to satisfy 
some trivial curiosity, or aid the designs of some military or 
political leader. The influence of intimidation or of bribery 
produced them. 'They were never spontaneous. The ora- 
cles were careful to take advantage of the security of silence, 
until obliged to speak in answer to a direct appeal. Then 
they never uttered a syllable without getting time for prepa- 
ration. Inquiries were rendered as difficult and as expensive 
as possible, in order, not only to enrich the oracles, but to 
diminish the occasions of exposure. Eivery inquiry must be 
attended with numerous and minute ceremonies on the part 
of the applicant, as well as the prophet; in order that omis- 
sions or mismanagements might afford frequent excuses for 
the failure of the response, without implicating the inspira- 
tion of its author. ‘The god was not always in a humour to 
be consulted. “ Mather he was talking, or he was pursuing, 
_or he was in a journey, or peradventure he was sleeping, 
and must be awakened.” 'This afforded a very convenient 
opportunity of putting off a difficult case. “Omens were to 
be taken, and auguries examined, which, if unfavourable in 
any particular, either precluded the inquiry for the present, 
or required further lustrations, ceremonies, and sacrifices, to 
purify the person who had consulted, and render him fit to 
receive an answer from the gods, or to bring their wayward 


192 LECTURE VII. 


deities to a temper suitable to the inquiry.”* When no means 
of evasion remained, the answers given were either so am- 
biguous as to suit any alternative, or so obscure as to require 
a second oracle to explain them. When the prediction failed, 
there was no want of subterfuges by which to maintain the 
credit of the oracle. It was conveniently discovered, either 
that the gods were averse to the inquirer, or that he had not 
been in a proper state for the consultation, or that some in- 
dispensable ceremony had been omitted or mismanaged. But 
all these precautions and artifices were not sufficient to pre- 
vent those oracles from falling into utter contempt with the 
move enlightened heathens.t Who could think of comparing 
such pitiful mockeries of divine omniscience with the 
dignified, and sublime, and holy prophecies which are spread 
out so openly and widely in the scriptures? To point out 
the particulars in which the prophets of the Bible were dis- 
tinguished above all the oracles of the Pagans, were to 
suppose a measure of ignorance among my hearers, as to the 
most conspicuous features of the scriptures, with which I 
cannot believe them chargeable. But our assertion remains, 
and deserves to be repeated, that neither in the rise, nor in 
the progressive advancement of any religion, but that of the 
Bible, have prophecies been professed or appealed to; In. 
evidence of its truth. his single fact, that all other reli- 
gions have shrunk from attempting such dangerous ground; 
that notwithstanding the boldness with which other descrip- 
tions of evidence have been counterfeited among Pagans and 
Mohammedans, and in support of the corruptions of popery, 
all have kept aloof from this; and yet that this very evidence, 
so extremely hazardous—so certain of ultimate exposure in 
case of imposition—is every where professed in the Bible, 
and forms the golden chain that holds all its parts together, 


sSeRSBORPERT Smacen aera > prop ee RNC nC ENT AET ete CS 1M Oe ee 


* Nare’s View of Prophecy. 
t Stillingfleet’s Orig. Sacre, 1. 2, c. 8, p. 221. 


LECTURE VII. 193 


and by which it spans the world, touching at once its 
beginning and ending, the first and the last; this, I say, 
independently of the question of fulfilment, 1s a strong 
presumptive argument that the Bible contains something of 
great importance which no other religion possessed ; some- 
thing to warrant it in venturing where nothing but Divine 
Omniscience is able to tread; in other words, that its writers 
were holy men, who “spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost.” 

The overpowering weight of the evidence from prophecy, 
and the moral grandeur with which it attests the inspiration 
of God and the Messiahship of Christ, can only be appre- 
ciated by a full view of the immense scheme and the vast 
extent of the prophecies in the Bible. Their record occupies 
a large portion of the scriptures. In the third chapter of 
- the Bible, it begins ; in the last, it ends. Its spirit arose with 
the fall of man in Eden; its predictions will only end with 
his perfect recovery in heaven. During the progress of 
more than four thousand years, the scheme of prophecy was 
continually opening ; its predictions were continually multi- 
plying; its grand object and purpose were continually 
becoming more distinct and luminous. The spirit of pro- 
phecy first uttered its voice when as yet our fallen parents 
had not been expelled the garden of innocence. Cain heard 
in it the warning of his punishment. Enoch continued its 
declarations. Noah transmitted its strain. Abraham’s whole 
life was guided and encouraged by its inspirations. Isaac 
was the child, as well as the instrument of prophetic com- 
-munication. Jacob with his last breath foretold the future 
history of his twelve sons in their generations, and the reign 
of alawgiver in Judah till Shiloh should come. The harp 
of prophecy remained in silence, while the posterity of Jacob 
remained in Egyptian bondage; but no sooner was Israel 
free, than the Spirit again breathed upon its strings, and in the 


hand of Moses it spake of the great Prophet who was to come 
16* 


194 LECTURE VII. 


to the church, and sketched the Jewish history, with wonder- 
ful minuteness, down even to the present and far future times. 
Between Moses and David, lived Samuel, a prophet of the 
Lord. Immediately after him, began what may be styled, 
with emphatic distinction, “the age of prophecy.” Tt opened 
with the elevated and sublime poetry of David. It advanced 
with the stern ministry of honoured Elijah. As he went 
up in the flaming chariot, translated to heaven, his mantle 
descended upon the “man of God” Elisha. Among the 
minor prophets who carried on the spirit of this age of seers, 
were Hosea, Amos, and Micah. 'Then followed Isaiah, as 
full of the spirit of the gospel, as of the spirit of prophecy ; 
and Jeremiah, overflowing as well with tender lamentation 
for the affliction of Israel, as with the sublimest predictions 
of the days when the Lord would heal and comfort them ; 
then Ezekiel, with as many visions of the future, as the 
eyes in his mysterious wheels, prophecying “in the midst of 
the valley which was filled with bones.” Ezekiel connected 
in his person the age of prophecy with that of the captivity 
of Judah. Daniel succeeded him, and beside the prophetic 
interpretation of the hand-writing on the wall, foretold the 
succession of the four powerful monarchies, and the feeble 
rising and ultimate dominion of the fifth, and determined 
the time when the daily sacrifice would cease, and Messiah 
be cut off—not for himself. Waggai and Zechariah contin- 
ued the prophetic strain, after the return of Judah from cap- 
tivity. Malachi terminated the line of Old Testament 
prophets and the canon of Old Testament scriptures, with 
the sublime annunciation of one who was to come, in the 
spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare the way of the Lord. 
Again the harp of prophecy was silent as during the bond- 
age of Egypt, until “that Prophet” like unto, but infinitely 
greater than, Moses arose. Jxrsus, the great object of pro- 
phecy from the beginning—himself “ the spirit of prophecy ;” 
~—foretold, besides his own death and resurrection, the 


LECTURE VII. 195 


calamities that should befall Jerusalem, as well as the utter 
destruction of the Jewish state. Paul followed his Master’s 
steps, as well in the walks of prophecy, as of martyrdom, 
forewarning the church of “that man of sin, the son of 
perdition, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with 
all power, and signs, and lying wonders.”* John closed the 
succession of prophecy, and the canon of scripture together, 
with predictions, the awful sublimity of which no pen can 
rival, and the wonderful expanse of which, nothing but the 
events of all future time can measure. 

Thus have we a train of holy men, reaching from the 
earliest age of mankind, through a period of more than four 
thousand years, and extending their prediction to the world’s 
end. I see in them the utmost variety—as well as to condi- 
tion and character, as to the ages in which they lived— 
princes, patriarchs, priests, legislators, shepherds, fisher- 
men. "xceedingly various in natural qualifications, in 
education, habits, and employments; they wrote in various 
styles, but each as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. Now 
when, in connexion with this variety in the prophets them- 
selves, I consider the vast variety and extent of the subjects 
on which their predictions are employed, embracing not only 
the history of the Jews for many centuries, but that also of 
the minor nations immediately around, with that of the 
more remote empires of Egypt, and Assyria, and Chaldea, 
and Persia, and Macedon, and Rome; when I consider that 
in this immense vastness of extent, so great is their minute- 
ness of detail, that sundry particular events and features in 
their destruction, not only of the city of Jerusalem, but also 
of Nineveh, and Babylon, and Tyre, are predicted with the 
most graphic and striking precision ; when, in the midst of 
such wonderful diversity of authors, ages, circumstances, 
and of subjects, from the downfall of an empire, to the 


* 2 Thess. ii. 3—9. 


196 LECTURE VII. 


tumbling of a wall, I perceive not the smallest inconsistency 
or collision, but, on the contrary, the utmost harmony, as well 
of execution as of purpose and of spirit—the whole array 
of prophecy, from first to last, bearing down and concentra- 
ting upon one grand object—the testimony of Jesus—the 
rise, progress, and eternal accomplishment of his plan of 
redeeming love ; in a word, when I behold ascheme so vast, 
as to embrace all time, and yet so minute that it can detail 
the events of an hour; so general that, in a few lines, it 
predicts the history of the four mightiest empires, and yet so 
particular that chapters are devoted to the history of one 
individual ; so diversified in its materials, as to be made up 
of contributions from men of all ages and minds, during a 
period of four thousand years; and yet so identical that one 
spirit and one grand, harmonious purpose animate the 
whole; when I compare all this, arrayed, as it is, in the 
richest poetry and loftiest eloquence that eye of man ever 
read, with whatever else in the world ever pretended to 
the praise of prophecy; I behold a grandeur of conception 
—a sublimity of design—an all-controlling power of execu- 
tion—a unity and self-depending supremacy of mind which 
bespeak the omniscienee and omnipotence of Him who 
“was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty.” I say nothing 
yet of the fulfilment of any portion of this stupendous plan ; 
I only say, look at the plan itself in all its comprehensive- 
ness and minuteness, and tell me if it be not utterly at vari- 
ance with all human experience, and in itself perfectly 
incredible, that imposture should have conceived such a 
scheme, or should ever have dared to commit its cause to a 
venture that could only succeed by a continuance of miracu- 
lous fortune through all ages of the world. Consider the 
plan itself, the various minds that carried on the succession 
of its several predictions, forming a line of holy men from 
the earliest periods of antediluvian history, down to the last 
of the apostles of Christ; see how they all agree in spirit 


x 


LECTURE VII. 197 


and purpose, while yet so different in character and circum- 
stances; see how they all unite in testifying of Christ, so 
that, as the last of them said, “the testimony of Jesus is the 
Spirit of prophecy ;’ then tell me how imposture can be 
supposed to have wrought, unexposed, for so many thousands 
of years; how it could have chosen its agents out of forty 
centuries—out of circumstances so disadvantageous, and bid. 
them embrace such an immense range of subjects for their 
predictions, and yet without any inconsistency, or want of 
harmony, or any thing incompatible with the idea of one 
all-pervading mind having regulated the whole. I do not 
now say that so much as one prophecy has been fulfilled. 
I only say, and I challenge all denial, that not a single pre- 
diction in the whole succession can be shown to have failed ; 
or to have been contradicted by the times or events to which 
it referred. I only assert that, while many of the prophe- 
cies remain unfulfilled, because the times they relate to have 
not arrived; a very great number must have either been 
fulfilled already, or have utterly failed; and yet no unbeliever 
could ever put his hand on that portion of history which 
contradicted the truth of any. I ask you to remember this 
important and undeniable fact, and then say whether it is 
not most impressive evidence that another mind than that of 
man was the author of the prophecies of the Bible; whether 
it can be supposed possible in the nature of things that 
human ingenuity could have contrived a volume of predic- 
tions—reaching so far—extending so widely—telling so 
much—assuming such particularity, without having been 
contradicted by a single event in the history of nearly six 
thousand years. 

We now enter upon the question of fulfilment. 1 under- 
take to show that the history of the world has wonderfuily — 
responded to the prophecies of the Bible, and echoed back to 
the holy men who uttered them, a complete assurance that 
they “spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But 


198 LECTURE VII. 


where shail I begin? It were easier to write a volume on 
his one subject, than to compress the matter within our 
1ecessary limits, so as to do it any tolerable justice. Select- 
ing some insulated portions of the train of prophecy, we 
must content ourselves with exhibiting their accomplishment 
as specimens of the whole. 'To this, the remainder of the 
present lecture, and the whole of the next, will be devoted. 

As an example of minute prediction and singular fulfil- 
ment, compare Jeremiah, xxxiv. 2 and 3, with Ezekiel, xii. 
13. In the former scripture, it was foretold by one prophet, 
that Zedekiah, the king of Judah, should be delivered into 
the hand of the king of Babylon, and behold his eyes, and 
speak with him mouth to mouth, and go to Babylon. In 
the latter, it was foretold by another prophet, that Zedekiah 
should not see Babylon, though he should die there. But is 
there not a contradiction here? How could Zedekiah be 
taken to Babylon, and behold her king, and die there, and 
yet never see the city? The history of the kings of Judah, 
written without any design of pointing out the fulfilment 
of prophecy, fully explains the difficulty. Zedekiah was 
delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, and beheld 
his eyes, and spake with him mouth to mouth; not, how- 
ever, at Babylon, but at Riblah. ‘There his eyes were put 
out by command of his captor. In this state, he went to 
Babylon, and died there, having never seen the city of his 
captiwity. 

Another example’ of wonderful minuteness is found in 
the prophecies ‘of the fall and destruction of Babylon. We 
can notice only a small part of them. “It shall never be 
inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in, (said the prophet,) from 
generation to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch 
tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. 
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and the houses 
shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there, 
and satyrs shal! dance there, and the wild beasts of the 


LECTURE VII. ~ 4199 


desert shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their 
pleasant palaces.”* “TI will also make it a possession for 
the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the 
besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts.” These 
words were uttered when Babylon was “the glory of king- 
doms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency,” about 160 
years before she was brought down. “How hath the golden 
city ceased!” “Her pomp is brought down to the grave.” 
Sixteen centuries have passed since her foundations were 
inhabited by a human being. Deterred by superstitious 
fears of evil spirits, which are said to haunt the place where 
she stood, and by the more rational dread of reptiles and 
wild beasts, the wandering Arab never pitches his tent there. 
In a plain once famous for the richness of its pasture, the 
shepherds make no fold. Reptiles, bats, and “doleful crea- 
tures’—jackals, hyenas, and lions—inhabit the holes, and 
caverns, and marshes, of the desolate city. In the fourth 
century, Babylon was a hunting ground for the Persian 
monarchs. By the annual overflowing of the Euphrates, 
pools of stagnant water are left in the hollow places of the 
ancient site, by which morasses have been formed, so that 
Babylon has indeed become a possession for the bittern, 
and pools of water. It has been swept with the besom 
of destruction. 'The fertile plain of Shinar, renowned for 
its ancient abundance, is an uninterrupted desert, strewed 
with the confused ruins of Grecian, Roman, and Arabian 
towns. A modern traveller, in his “search after the walls 
of Babylon,” describes “a mass of solid wall, about thirty 
feet in length, by twelve or fifteen in thickness,” as the only 
part of them that can now be discovered.t Thus, accord- 
ing to the words of the prophet, is she cast up as heaps, 
destroyed utterly ; nothing of her is left.t 

Tyre was once the emporium of. the world, “the theatre 


* Is. xiii, 20, 21,22. + Buckingham’s Travels. _t Jer. 1, 26. 


200 LECTURE VII. 


of an immense commerce and navigation, the nursery of 
arts and science, and the city of perhaps the most industrious 
and active people ever known.”* WSituate at the entry of 
the sea, she was a merchant of the people for many isles. 
All nations were her merchants in all sorts of things. The 
ships of Tarshish did sing of her in the market ; and she 
was replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the 
seas." It was of this mistress of princes, that Ezekiel 
prophesied in the name of the Lord: “TI will scrape her dust 
from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be 
a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.”t 
How singularly particular! She was not only to be utterly 
destroyed, but the use that would be made of her site, and 
the kind of men who would inhabit it were pointed out more 
than a thousand years before her complete destruction. 
How precise the fulfilment! Shaw, in his book of travels, 
describes the port of T'yre as so choked up, that the boats 
of the fishermen, who now and then come to the place, and 
dry their nets upon its rocks and ruins, can hardly enter.§ 
Bruce describes the site of 'yre as “a rock whereon fishers 
dry their nets.” But the testimony of the infidel, Volney, is 
more valuable. “'The whole village of Tyre contains only 
fifty or sixty poor families, who live obscurely on the produce 
of their little ground and a trifling fishery.” || 

Egypt, the most ancient, was also the most powerful and 
wealthy of kingdoms. But a prophecy went forth against 
her while yet she was in all her pomp and pride, that the 
pride of her power should come down ; that her land and all 
that was therein should be made waste by the hand of stran- 
gers ; that there should be no more a prince of the land of 
Egypt, and the sceptre of Egypt should depart away.% 


* Volney’s Travels. + Ezek. xxvii. t+ Ib. xxvi. 4, 5. 
§ Shaw’s Travels, ii. p.31. ‘ll Travels, ii. p. 212. 
W Ezek. xxx. 6, 12, 13.—Zech. x. 11. 


LECTURE VII. 201 


How universally this once fertile country, the granary of 
the world, has been wasted, and her innumerable cities have 
been buried; how remarkably the hand of strangers has 
done it, and how deplorably the remnant of this populous 
nation is now, and has been for many centuries, under 
slavery, and ignorance, and poverty, and rapine, and every 
crime, I need not describe. 'The most remarkable portion of 
the prophecy is that which declares that there shall be “no 
more a prince of the land of Egypt.” From the conquest 
of the Persians, about 350 years before Christ, to the present 
day, the sceptre of Egypt has been broken; she has been 
governed by strangers; every effort to raise an Egyptian to 
the throne has been defeated. Out of the mouth of Volney, 
the Lord has caused to be declared the fulfilment of 
His word. Of Egypt, that most unwilling agent in esta- 
blishing the truth of scripture writes: “ Deprived, twenty- 
three centuries ago, of her natural proprietors, she has 
seen her fertile fields successively a prey to the Persians, 
the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the 
Georgians, and at length the race of 'Tartars, distinguished 
by the name of Ottoman Turks. The Mamalukes, pur- 
chased as slaves and introduced as soldiers, soon usurped the 
power, and elected a leader. If their first establishment was 
a singular event, their continuance is not less extraordinary. 
They are replaced by slaves brought from their origmal 
country. The system of oppression is methodical. Every 
thing the traveller sees or hears reminds him he is in the 
country of slavery and tyranny.”* 

Among the most interesting fulfilments of prophecy, are 
those discovered in the present condition of the country and 
cities of Judea. For a very striking view of them, the 
reader is referred to Keith on Prophecy, a valuable work 
lately republished in this country. But there is one predic- 


* Travels, ii. p. 74, 103, 110, 198. 
17 


a LECTURE VII. 


tion in this department which I cannot pass over. After 
describing the divine judgments upon the land, the prophet 
adds: “'The generation to come of your children, and the 
stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they 
see the plagues of that land, and the sickness which the Lord 
hath laid upon it: ‘Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto 
this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger ?”* 
About three thousand years after these words were written, 
a famous traveller, a scoffer at the scriptures, walks through 
this smitten country. He is a stranger from a far land. 
Deeply impressed with the aspect of all things around him, 
and in all probability entirely ignorant of the prophecy he is 
about to fulfil, he exclaims: “Good God! from whence pro- 
ceed such melancholy revolutions? For what cause is the 
fortune of these countries so strikingly changed? Why are 
so many cities destroyed? Why is not that ancient popula- 
tion reproduced and perpetuated.” “I wandered over the 
country. Itraversed the provinces. I enumerated the king- 
doms of Damascus and Idumea, of Jerusalem and Samaria. 
This Syria, said I to myself, now almost depopulated, then 
contained a hundred flourishing cities, and abounded with 
towns, villages, and hamlets. What are become of so many 
productions of the hands of man ?”t &c. 

No prophecies deserve more of the attention of the student 
of scripture than those concerning the Jews, which are scat- 
tered from one end of the Bible to the other. Their wonder- 
ful accomplishment is in every one’s view. We can only 
glance at some of the many particulars which they em- 
brace. ‘Three thousand two hundred years ago, it was 
written by Moses: “'The Lord shall scatter thee among all 
people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other 3 
and among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither 
shall the sole of thy foot have rest ; and thou shalt become an 


an anne inn renee ane payee hd e  L 
* Deut. xxix. 22, 24. t Volney’s Ruins, c. ii. p. 8. 


ee 


LECTURE. VII. 203 


astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all the nations 
whither the Lord shall lead thee; and thou shalt be only 
oppressed and crushed alway ; and the Lord will make thy 
plagues wonderful, and the plague of thy seed, even great 
plagues and of long continuance.”* But notwithstanding all 
this, the Jews were not to be destroyed without recovery. 
« Yet for all that (saith the prophet), when they be in the land 
of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I ab- 
hor them to destroy.them utterly.”t “I will make a full end 
of all the nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not 
make a full end of thee.”{ “For the children of Israel shall 
abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and 
without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an 
ephod, and without teraphim : afterwards shall the children 
of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David 
their king ; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the 
latter days.”§ 

There is nothing in the history of nations so unac- 
countable, on human principles, as the destruction and the 
preservation of the Jews. “Scattered among all nations ;” 
where are they not? Citizens of the world, and yet citizens 
of no country in the world; in what habitable part of the 
world is not the Jew familiarly known? He has wandered 
every where, and is still every where a wanderer. One 
characteristic of this wonderful race is written over all their 
history, from their dispersion to the present time. Among 
the nations, they have found no ease, nor rest to the soles of 
their feet. Banished from city to city, and from country 
to country; always insecure in their dwelling places, and 
liable to be suddenly driven away whenever the bigotry, or 
avarice, or cruelty of rulers demanded a sacrifice; a late decree 
of the Russian Empire has proclaimed to the world that 


Se ee ee nanaarET LT AG A ei dk, ee eS Ce, eed 


* Deut. xxvill. + Lev. xxvi. 44. t Jer. xlvi. 27, 28. 
§ Hosea, iii. 4, 5. 


204 LECTURE VII. 


their banishments have not yet ceased. Never certain of 
permission to remain, it is the notorious peculiarity of this 
people, as a body, that they live in habitual readiness to 
remove. In this condition of universal affliction, how sin- 
gular it is that among all people the Jew is “ an astonishment, 
a proverb, a by-word.” Such is not the case with any other 
people. Among Christians, Heathens, and Mohammedans, 
from England to China, and thence to America, the cunning, 
the avarice, the riches of the Jew are proverbial. And how 
wonderful have been their plagues! 'The heart sickens at 
the history of their persecutions, and massacres, and im. 
prisonments, and slavery. All nations have united to oppress 
them. All means have been employed to exterminate them. 
Robbed of property; bereaved of children; buried in the 
dungeons of the inquisition, or burned at the stake of de- 
plorable bigotry ; no people ever suffered the hundredth part 
of their calamities, and still they live! It was prophecied 
that, as a nation, they should be restored ; consequently they 
were not only to be kept alive, but unmingled with the na- 
tions, every where a distinct race, and capable of being 
selected and gathered out of all the world, when the time for 
their restoration should arrivé. The fulfilment of this, forms 
the most astonishing part of the whole prophecy. For nearly 
eighteen hundred years, they have been scattered and mixed 
up among all people; they have had no temple, no sacrifice, 
no prince, no genealogies, no certain dwelling places. For- 
bidden to be governed by their own laws; to choose their 
own magistrates; to maintain any common policy; every 
ordinary bond of national union and preservation has been 
wanting; whatever influences of local attachment, or of 
language, or manners, or government, have been found 
necessary to the preservation of other nations, have been 
denied to them; all the influences of internal depression and 
outward violence which have ever destroyed and blotted out 
the nations of the earth, have been at work with unprece- 


LECTURE VII. 205 


dented strength, for nearly eighteen centuries, upon the 
nation of Israel; and still the Jews are a people—a distinct 
people—a numerous people, unassimilated with any nation, 
though mixed up with all nations. Their peculiarites are 
undiminished. Their national identity is unbroken. Though 
scattered upon all winds, they are perfectly capable of being 
again gathered into one mass. Though divided into the 
smallest particles by numerous solvents, they have resisted 
all affinities, and may be traced, unchanged, in the most con- 
fused mixtures of human beings. The laws of nature have 
been suspended in their case. It is not merely that a stream 
has held on its way through the waters of a lake, without 
losing the colour and characteristic marks of its own current ; 
but that a mighty river, having plunged from a mountain 
height into the depth of the ocean, and been separated. into 
its component drops, and thus scattered to the ends of the 
world, and blown about by all winds, during almost eighteen 
centuries, is still capable of being disunited from the waters 
of the ocean ; its minutest drops, having never been assimi- 
lated to any other, are still distinct, unchanged, and ready to 
be gathered, waiting the voice that shall call again the out- 
casts of Isracl and the dispersed of Judah. Mean while, 
where are the nations among whom the Jews were scattered? 
Has not the Lord, according to his word, made a full end of 
them 2* While Israel has stood unconsumed in the fiery 
furnace, where are the nations that kindled its flames? 
Where the Assyrians and the Chaldeans? Their name is 
almost forgotten. Their existence is known only to history. 
Where is the empire of the Egyptians? The Macedonians 
destroyed it, and a descendant of its ancient race cannot be 
distinguished among the strangers that have ever since 
possessed its territory. Where are they of Macedon’? ‘The 
Roman sword subdued their kingdom, and their posterity 


ee ge SD i a Oa Rd 1, 


* Jer. xlvi. 28. 
17* 


206 LECTURE VII. 


are mingled inseparably among the confused population of 
Greece and Turkey. Where is the nation of ancient Rome, 
the last conquerors of the Jews, and the proud destroyers of 
Jerusalem? The Goths rolled their flood over its pride. 
Another nation inhabits the ancient city. Even the language 
of her former people is dead. The Goths! where are they ? 
The Jews! where are they not? They witnessed the glory 
of Egypt, and of Babylon, and of Ninevah ; they were in ma- 
ture age at the birth of Macedon and of Rome; mighty 
kingdoms have risen and perished since they began to be 
scattered and enslaved; and now they traverse the ruins of 
all, the same people as when they left Judea, preserving in 
themselves a monument of the days of Moses and the Pha- 
raohs, as unchanged as the pyramids of Memphis, which they 
are reputed to have built. You may call upon the ends of 
the earth, and will call. in vain for one living representative 
of those powerful nations of antiquity, by whom the people 
of Israel were successively oppressed ; but should the voice 
which is hereafter to gather that people out of all lands, be 
now heard from Mount Zion, calling for the children of 
Abraham, no less than four millions would instantly answer 
to the name, each bearing in himself unquestionable proofs 
of that noble lineage. 

What is this but miracle? Connected with the prophecy 
which it fulfils, it is double miracle. Whether testimony can 
ever establish the credibility of a miracle, is of no import- 
ance here. ‘This one is obvious to every man’s senses. All 
nations are its eye-witnesses. 

Among the most strikme and comprehensive, and yet 
particular prophecies, are those of Daniel. The history of 
the four great empires of Chaldea, Persia, Macedon, and 
Rome, is embraced in his predictions. We mention these, 
not that we intend to trace out their fulfilment, but merely, in 
passing, to insert a remarkable testimony concerning them 
from one of the most learned expositors of the prophetic 


LECTURE VII. ZU 


scriptures, and another from the most learned and acute 
of the ancient opposers of christianity. Bishop Newton, 
speaking of that portion of Daniel’s prophecies which relates 
to the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, from the death of Alex- 
ander the Great to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, a 
period of 148 years, remarks: “There is not so complete 
and regular a series of their kings—there is not so concise 
and comprehensive an account of their affairs—to be found 
in any author of those times. The prophecy is really more 
perfect than any history. No one historian hath related so 
many circumstances, and in such exact order of time, as 
the prophet hath foretold them; so that it was necessary 
to have recourse to several authors, Greek and Roman, 
Jewish and Christian, and to collect here something from 
one, and to collect there something from another, for the 
better explaining and illustrating the great variety of par- 
ticulars contained in this prophecy.”* Thus far, the testimony 
of a learned friend of Christianity. The corresponding 
testimony of a learned enemy, we have in the celebrated 
Porphyry, of the third century, to whom the exact corre- 
spondence between the predictions and the events was so 
convincing, that he could not pretend to deny it. He rather 
laboured to confirm it; and from the very exactness of the 
fulfilment, forged his only weapon of defence, in the asser- 
tion that the prophecy could not have been written by 
Daniel, but must have been written by some one in Judea, 
in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.t Others after him 
have asserted the same thing, not only without any proof, 
but contrary to all the proofs which can be had in cases of 
this nature. They preferred the denial of the plainest his- 
torical evidence of the time when the prophecy was written, 
to the acknowledement that its author must have written 
“by inspiration of God.” Paine, however, whose willing- 


* Newton on Prophecy, ii. 149. + Lardner, iv. 215. 


208 LECTURE VII. 


ness to escape the argument from prophecy cannot be 
questioned, and who was probably ignorant of what Por- 
phyry had acknowledged as to the correspondence between 
the words of this prophet and those of subsequent history, 
confessed the authenticity of the book of Daniel. Here, 
_ then, we have one famous infidel acknowledging that the 
prophecy was written at the time and by the man to whom 
it is ascribed; and another, verifying the exactness of its 
fulfilment in the history of a subsequent age. Paine denied 
the fulfilment; Porphyry, the authenticity. Porphyry ac- 
knowledged the fulfilment; Paine, the authenticity. “ He 
taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” 

Tnow call your attention to the prophecies concerning our 
Lord Jesus Christ. They are scattered every where through- 
out the prophetic portions of the Bible. “'T’o him bear all 
the prophets witness.” None of them could lay down the 
pen of inspiration till they had written something, directly or 
indirectly, of Jesus. 

1. The first class of these predictions consists of those 
which relate to the time and circumstances of the advent of 
Christ. Daniel, A. C. 556, determined the year of his com- 
ing, when 490 years should be accomplished from the going 
forth of the command to rebuild Jerusalem. Jacob, more 
than a thousand years before Daniel, had said it would be 
when the sceptre was departing from Judah, and a lawgiver 
from between his feet.* Haggai and Isaiah declared that it 
would be before the destruction of Jerusalem, and during the 
existence of the second temple.t Micah designated Bethle- 
hem Ephratah as his birth-place.t Many prophecies pre- 
dicted that he should come, not only of the stock of Judah, 
but of the stem of Jesse.§ Tsaiah and Malachi spake of the 
messenger who should go before him, in the spirit and power 
of Elijah, to prepare his way.| 


* Gen. xlix. 10. t Is. xl. 9—xli, 27.—Hag. ii. 6—S. t Mic. v.2. 
$. Is. xi. 1. il Is, xl, 3.—Mal. iii. l—iv. 5. . 


LECTURE VII. 2()9 


2. The next class of predictions, concerning our Lord, 
contains those which speak of his life, sufferings, death, 
resurrection, and the increase of his kingdom. 'These are 
so numerous and particular, and so familiar to most readers 
of the Bible, that we shall content ourselves with a rapid 
summary. They predicted that Christ, or Messiah, would 
be born of a virgin ;* that he should enter Jerusalem on the 
foal of an ass;t that in his manner of teaching he should 
be characterized by special gentleness and compassion ;+ that 
he would be distinguished as wise “to speak a word in 
season to him that is weary ;”§ that he should blind the 
eyes of the learned and proud,|| and preach good tidings to 
the poor and despised; that under his ministry the lame 
should be made to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, 
the dumb to speak, the captive to be loosed, and the dead 
raised up ;4 that he should teach the perfect way, and be the 
instructer of the Gentiles ;** that he should be a sacrifice 
for sin, be rejected of the Jews, who themselves should be 
rejected of God;tt “that the kings of the earth and all peo 
ple should worship him ;tf but that the people who rejected 
him should continue a distinct people, and yet be scattered 
over all nations, and wander about without princes, without 
sacrifices, without an altar, without prophets, looking for 
deliverance and not finding it, till a very distant period.§§ 

The correspondence between the several particulars re- 
lated of the death of Christ, and the predictions scattered 
through the Bible, is extremely striking. The evangelists, 
in this respect are but echoes of the prophets. I can give but 
arapid sketch. These predictions include the treachery and 
awful end of Judas;|i|| the precise sum of money for which 


* Is. vii. 14. t Zech. ix. 9. + Is. xlii. 1, 2, 3. § Is. 1.4. 
W Is. v. 15. 7 Is. xxxv. 5, 6—ix. 2. #* Ts. xlii. 6. 

tt Is. liili—viii. 14, 15.  # Is. Ix. 10, 11, 12, &c.—hiii. 12. 

§§ Jer. xxxi. 36.—Hos. iii. 4, 5. i Ps, xli. 9—lv. 12,13 14, 15. 


210 LECTURE VII. 


he betrayed his Master; and the use to which it was put.* 
They specify not only the sufferings of Christ, but of what 
they should consist. That his back should be given to the 
smiters, his face to shame and spitting ;+ that he should be 
put to death by a mode which would cause his hands and his 
feet to be pierced; that he should be wounded, bruised, and 
scourged;i that, in his death, he should be numbered with 
transgressors,} and in his sufferings, have gall and vinegar 
given him to drink ;\| that his persecutors should langh him 
to scorn, and shake their heads, reviling him, and saying : 
“He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him ; let him 
deliver him.”% Although it was the custom to break the 
bones of those who were crucified, and although the bones 
of the thieves crucified with him, were broken, yet it was 
predicted that “not a bone of him should be broken ;”** and 
moreover, that his garments should be divided, and lots cast 
for his vesture ;{t that while he should “make his grave with 
the wicked,” as he did in being buried like the wicked com- 
panions of his death, under the general leave for taking down 
their bodies from the cross, he should at the same time make 
his grave “with the rich,” as was done when they buried 
him in the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea.tt I might 
enumerate many more details of prophecy centering upon ' 
the life and death of Christ. What have been mentioned 
are abundantly sufficient for our present argument. I have 
only recited a concise list of the predictions. I cannot sup- 
pose any of you so unacquainted with the history of Christ 
as not to be able, familiarly, to refer to all those passages in 
his life and death by which they were minutely and wonder- 


"*® Zech. xi, 12, 13, 7218. 156: t Zech. xii. 10.—Ps. xxii. 16. 

§ Is. lili. 4, 5, 8, and 12. ll Ps. Ixix. 21. 7 Ps. xxii: 7,8. 

** Numb. ix. 12—Ex. xii. 46—Ps. xxxiv. 20. tt Ps. xxii. 18. 

tt Is. lili. 9—The translation of this verse in Lowth’s Isaiah is much 
more to the point than that of the common text: “ And his grave was ap- 
pointed with the wicked; but with the rich man was his tomb.” 


LECTURE VII. 211 


fully fulfilled. Now, consider that no question is raised by 
any one, whether these predictions were made and published 
several centuries before the birth of Christ. 'The enemies 
of Christ, his crucifiers, have been the librarians of these 
writings.* The Jews preserved them for us, with sacred 
care, for many hundreds of years. They were translated, 
from Hebrew into Greek, at least two hundred years before 
Christ. The Jews then understood them to refer to the 
Messiah, as we do now; and it was on account of some of 
them that a general expectation of the speedy coming of 
Messiah, prevailed so widely in Judea at the time of the 
public appearance of Christ. 

That all these particulars were most remarkably combined 
in the person, character, works, sufferings, and burial of the 
Lord Jesus, I need not say. If the predictions did not ori- 
ginally refer to him, and only happened to be accomplished 
in him, it would be reasonable to suppose that out of the 
innumerable millions of men that have lived since they were 
published, some other individual, if not hundreds, would 
have appeared, exhibiting the same correspondence. Where 
is the record of such an event? Can the person be men- 
tioned, in whom there was even an approximation to the 
fulfilment exhibited in the history of Jesus? I need not 
say, that no one ever pretended to be able to find such a per- 
son. ‘T'hese prophecies describe a combination of gentleness 
with power; merit with ignominy ; benevolence with con- 
tempt; they bring together details of ancestry, of family, of 
geese spi I OLN ely WM ta adh 

* Augustine, in the fourth century, spoke very often of the great advan- 
tage which Christians had in their arguments for the truth of the gospel, from 
the subsistence and dispersion of the Jewish people, who every where bear 
testimony to the antiquity and genuineness of the books of the Old Testa- 
ment; so that none could say they were afterwards forged by Christians, 
He therefore calls the Jews the librarians of the Christians ; he compares 


them to servants that carry books for the use of children of noble families ; or 
that carry a chest or bag of evidence for a disputant.—Lardner, ii. 598. 


212 LECTURE VII. 


birth, of time, of works, of sufferings, of death, which it 
were ridiculous to pretend have been united in any individual 
whose name is in the annals of man, except the Son of man, 
Christ Jesus. 

But it may be said, that among these predictions, there are 
some which human design might have brought to pass. It 
may be suggested, that a band of men undertaking to pro- 
mote an imposture, and having these predictions before them, 
might have selected for their leader one who had been born 
at Bethlehem, of the lineage of David, and might have 
ordered his appearance at the precise time of the prophecy. 
Let this be supposed, and let us overlook the fact that no 
possible motive can be assigned that could induce a band 
of impostors to desire the setting up of such a cause as that 
of Christ; still, how would imposture contrive to unite in 
its leader the fulfilment of prophecies which, on one hand, 
foretold him as eminent for wisdom and benevolence; and. 
on the other, for shame and suffering? How, on this supposi- 
tion, could all those predictions have been accomplished 
which relate to the agonies of the cross? Would a deceiver 
seek crucifixion for the sake of fulfillmg prophecy? How 
was it managed that one should betray him ; and afterwards, 
out of remorse, hang himself? How was it contrived that 
the enemies of Christ should measure the price of his blood 
at the exact sum predicted; and then, that the mercenary 
traitor should return it to them again, and they should use it 
in purchase of the predicted potter’s field? How did im- 
posture so artfully combine in its cause all the persecutors of 
Christ, that, without any design to advance its interests, they 
should have chosen precisely that mode of execution ; those 
expressions of contempt; those instruments of torture; those 
companions of his sufferings; that mixture for his drink; 
that severity to his body, while he was alive, and that for- 
bearance to it after he was dead, which, if they had been 
anxious to prove him the true Messiah, foretold in the scrip- 


LECTURE VII. 213 


tures, would have composed the most effectual means they 
could possibly employ? Most evidently, the bitter adversa- 
ries of christianity—not its friends—brought out the demon- 
stration that Jesus was he to whom gave all the prophets 
witness. 

And now is there any possible escape from the absolute 
necessity of acknowledging that the Spirit of God was in 
the writers of the Bible, and that this Spirit has testified of 
Jesus? Will any one pretend that in the idea of chance 
there is any explanation of the coincidences which have 
been mentioned? It will not be useless to spend a moment 
on this matter of chance. It is conceivable that a prediction, 
uttered at a venture, confining its terms to but one event, and 
expressing that in a general way, may happen to result so 
plausibly as to seem like a genuine prophecy. But only let 
it descend to the minutie of time, place, and incidents, and 
it is evident that the possibility of its success, by a fortui- 
tous concurrence of events, will become extremely desperate. 
Hence the oracles of heathen antiquity always took good 
care to confine their predictions to one or two particulars, and 
to express them in the most general and ambiguous terms. 
Hence, in the whole range of history, except the prophecies 
of the scriptures, there is not a single instance of a predic- 
tion, expressed in unequivocal language, and descending to 
any minuteness, which bears the slightest claim to the praise 
of fulfilment. But to set this in a more impressive light, I 
will quote a few sentences from one of the most scientific 
laymen of the present day. “Suppose (says Olinthus Gregory) 
that instead of the spirit of prophecy, breathing more or less 
in every book of scripture, predicting events relative to a 
great variety of general topics, and delivering besides almost 
innumerable characteristics of the Messiah, all meeting in 
the person of Jesus; there had been only ¢en men in ancient 
times who pretended to be prophets, each of whom exhibited 
only five independent mame as to place, government, con: 


214 LECTURE VII- 


comitant events, doctrine taught, effects of doctrine, character, 
sufferings, or death; the meeting of all which in one person 
should prove the reality of their calling as prophets, and of 
his mission in the character they have assigned him: sup- 
pose, moreover, that all events were left to chance merely, 
and we were to compute, from the principles employed by 
mathematicians in the investigation of such subjects, the 
probability of these fifty independent circumstances happen- 
ing at all. Assume that there is, according to the technical 
phrase, an equal chance for the happening or the failure of 
any one of the specified particulars; then the probability 
against the occurrence of all the particulars in any way, is, 
that of the fiftieth power of two to unity; that is, the proba- 
bility is greater than eleven hundred and twenty-five millions 
of millions to one, that all these circumstances do not turn 
up even at distinct periods.”* But this calculation, you must 
observe, specifies no particular period for these things to 
take place; but allows, from the time of uttering the predic- 
tions, to the end of the world, for all the fifty particulars to 
occur. But if a time be fixed, at or near which they must 
happen, the immense improbability that they will take place 
exceeds all the power of numbers to express. This, more- 
over, is on the supposition of every thing being under the 
disposal of that fiction of unbelief, a blind chance. How 
infinite does the improbability appear, when it is remembered 
that “all events are under the control of a Being of matchless 
wisdom, power, and goodness, who hates fraud and decep- 
tion; who must especially hate it when attempted under his 
name and authority.” This is enough, one would think, to 
silence for ever all pleas of chance, as furnishing an unbe- 
liever the least opportunity of escape from the evidence of 
prophecy. What then is the conclusion to which, by the con- 
siderations presented in this lecture, we are authorized to come? 


———— 


* Gregory’s Letters. 


LECTURE VII. 215 


First: 'That in the Bible, there is a great variety of 
prophecy relative to the Messiah, which has been so re- 
markably fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and so entirely unfulfilled 
in any other individual of whom we have any history, that 
the correspondence necessarily proves the predictions to have 
been given by inspiration of God, and Jesus Christ to be the 
person to whom that inspiration, in the uttering of those 
predictions, referred. 

Secondly: That the Bible, in _thus containing genuine 
prophecies scattered through its several books, contains a 
revelation from G'od, and exhibits numerous and wide-spread 
impressions of the seal of divine authority. 

Lastly: That Jesus Christ, being thus pointed out and 
honoured by the Spirit of God, breathing on the lips of holy 
men, who in various centuries before his coming concurred 
in rendering him their testimony, as they were moved by: the 
Holy Ghost, was and is to come, no other than what he 
said—the Son of God—the Saviour of sinners—“ ane of 
kings and Lord of lords.” 

“Behold (saith He) I come quickly: blessed is he that 
keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” “He that 
confesseth me before men, him will I also confess before my 
Father who is in heaven.” But “how shall we escape if we 
neglect so great salvation ?” 


216 LECTURE VIII. 


LECTURE VIIL 


‘PROPHECY. 


Our blessed Lord was a prophet, as well as the grand sub- 
tect of prophecy. Not only did he possess omnipotence to 
call up the dead from the sepulchre, but omniscience also to 
bring forth from the darkness of the future what to uninspired 
man lies as secret as the mysteries of death. By prophecy, 
as well as miracles, he established the divinity of his mission. 
In the latter, his appeal was to the senses of eye-witnesses : 
“ The works that I do, they bear witness of me.” In the 
former, it was to the testimony of subsequent history: “ Now 
J tell you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, 
ye may believe that I am he.” He predicted not only his 
own sufferings, and death, and resurrection, but the manner 
and circumstances attending them; the treachery of Judas ; 
the denial of Peter; the particulars of his ignominious treat- 
ment in the council of the Jews, and under the hands of 
Pilate and his soldiers. He foretold the rapid spread of the 
gospel; the persecutions of his disciples ; the precise manner 
of Peter’s martyrdom ; the continuance of John till after the 
destruction of Jerusalem ; the rejection of the Jews, and the 
bringing of the Gentiles into the church of God. 

But none of our Saviour’s prophecies are more impressive 
than those concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, contained 
in the Gospels of Mark and Luke; but most at large in the 
twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. 'These we select as the 
subject of our consideration at present ; believing we shall be 
enabled to show, by most impressive evidence, that Jesus did 
indeed possess the spirit of prophecy, and consequently was 
divinely commissioned in setting up the faith of the gospel. 


LECTURE VIII. 217 


There is but one preliminary question to be answered, at 
the commencement of this investigation: Js it well ascer- 
tained that these prophecies were published before the de- 
struction of Jerusalem ? 

This has been already settled, in our lecture on the subject 
of authenticity; in which it was shown that the several books 
of the New 'Testament were written in the age to which they 
are referred, and by the men whose names they bear. It will 
be sufficient to state in this place, that of the three evangelists 
who have related these prophecies, Matthew and Mark are 
well ascertained to have died, and there is good reason to 
suppose that Luke also was dead, before the destruction of 
Jerusalem. | 

The Gospel of Matthew, which contains the most com- 
plete account of the predictions in question, -is universally 
acknowledged to have been written first. Its date is about 
the eighth year after the death of Christ. The destruction 
of Jerusalem being in the seventieth year of the christian era, 
the prophecies in relation to it were published by Matthew 
about thirty years, and were declared by our Saviour about 
thirty-seven years, before their fulfilment. Several years 
elapsed, also, between the publication of the same prophecies 
by Mark and Luke, and the events to which they relate. 
John, the only one of the four evangelists that lived and 
wrote subsequently to the ruin of the holy city, is the only 
one that omits an account of the predictions concerning it 
But we have the most satisfactory evidence that no suspicion 
of an ex post facto origin can justly attach to these prophe- 
cies, in the important fact, that although familiarly quoted 
by the early christian writers as striking evidence of the pro- 
phetic character of Jesus, we read of no writer against 
christianity in the primitive centuries having attempted to 
paralyze the argument by maintaining that they were not 
published till Jerusalem was destroyed, If enemies, so near 


the events predicted, had nothing to say; will any deny us 
18* 


218 LECTURE VIII. 


the privilege of proceeding in our present investigation un- 
embarrassed by any question on this head ?* 

There is a history of the destruction of Jerusalem, which, 
if it had been composed for the express purpose of attesting 
the complete accomplishment of our Lord’s predictions, could 
have hardly been made more appropriate to our present 
object. It was written by an eye-witness of the tragedy; a 
learned witness ; a witness who, having been first an eminent 
leader among the troops of Judea, and then a prisoner to the 
Roman commander, and continually kept about his person 
for the sake of his services, cannot be accused of having 
written without accurate information. His book was com- 
posed at Rome; and having been presented by the author to 
the emperor Vespasian, and to his son Titus, who had com- 
manded at the siege of Jerusalem, the latter not only desired 
its publication, but subscribed his own hand in confirmation 
of its correctness. It was also presented to, and approved by, 
several Jews, who had been present at the scenes described.t 
We could not desire a more complete attestation of the 
fulfilment of our Saviour’s prophecies than this book affords. 
And yet the writer was a Jew to the day of his death, and 
consequently an enemy of christianity, and could have had 
no design in favour of the prophetic spirit of its founder. I 
speak of Josephus. It is remarkable that one of the most 
minute prophecies in the Bible should have, from an enemy, 
the most minute of histories to show its fulfilment. No great 
event in profane history is related with so much attention to 
all the particulars connected with it, as is the destruction of 
Jerusalem by this Jewish writer. When we consider these 
things, and remember the extraordinary manner in which 
Josephus was several times protected from almost inevitable 
death, we may clearly discern the hand of a wise Providence, 


Lon this subject, see some excellent remarks in Paley’s Evidences, Part 
li. c. i, 
t Josephus’ Life, § 65, p. 23.—Contr. Apion. b. i 3 9. 


LECTURE VIII. 219 


preparing the way of the gospel. A witness was preserved 
and chosen of God, to write an account of the divine judg- 
ments upon Jerusalem, whose testimony neither Jews nor 
Heathens could deny or suspect. We proceed to compare his 
statements with the prophecies in question. 

J. Let us begin with those events which the Saviour 
foretold as signs of approaching desolation. 'Thus it is 
written: “ Take heed that no man deceive you, for many 
shall come in my name, saying, [ am Christ, and shall 
deceive many.”* Here are two distinct predictions. Many 
pretenders to the character of the Messiah, and their success 
in deceiving many. As the prophecy draws nearer to the 
chief event, it enlarges on this particular sign : “There shall 
arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great 
signs and wonders.” Here it is intimated, that as the great 
catastrophe should approach, these deceivers would multiply; 
and that they would pretend to signs and miracles. The 
very places where they would appear, and whither they 
would lead their followers, are also pointed out. “Jf they 
shall say unto you, Behold he ts in the desert; go not forth: 
Behold he is in the secret chambers ; believe tt not.”t 

Now it is worthy of note, that, until the day when these 
words were uttered, there had been no events in Jewish 
history in any manner corresponding with those which they 
describe. ‘T'wo years, however, had not elapsed before their 
fulfilment began. Simon Magus, very soon after the crucifix- 
ion, was heard boasting himself as the son of God; deceiving 
the people of Samaria with sorceries ; to whom they all gave 
heed, saying this man is the great power of God.; Another, 
named Dositheus, a Samaritan, pretended that he was the 
Christ foretold by Moses. In about the tenth year after the 
death of Christ, appeared one Theudas, who assured the 
people that he was a prophet, promising.to show a miracle 
in dividing the waters of Jordan.§ “By such speeches,” 


* Mat. xxiv. 4, 5. + Ib. xxiv. 26. t Acts, viii. 9, 10. 
§ The impostor, mentioned above, must not be confounded with him of the 


220 LECTURE VIII. 


says Josephus, in the very words of the prophecy, “ he 
deceived many.”* As we approach nearer the final event, 
(A. D. 55.), these deceivers multiply. “The country was 
filled with impostors who deceived the people,” and “ persua- 
ded them to follow them into the wilderness ; where, as they 
said, they should see manifest wonders and signs.”t Not 
only were the people thus seduced into the deserts, but also 
into “the secret chambers.” 'The inner apartments of the 
temple were the secret chambers referred to in the prophecy. 
Josephus relates that a great multitude whom the Roman 
soldiers destroyed in the “cloisters” of the temple, had been 
led there by a false prophet, who had made a public procla- 
mation, that very day, that God commanded them to get 
upon the temple, and that there they would receive miracu- 
lous signs for their deliverance. At that crisis, “there was 
a great number of false prophets.”{ Thus have we have all 
the particulars of the prophecy, so far as it has been quoted : 
—Many false Christs and prophets, deceiving many ; pre- 
tending to signs and wonders ; leading their followers into 
the deserts and secret chambers; and multiplying as the 
destruction drew near. 

Il. “ Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see 
that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to 
same name, spoken of by Gamaliel, Acts, v. 36. There were two noted 
characters of the name of Theudas. The one referred to by Gamaliel appear- 
ed about thirty years prior to the time of the council which that learned 
Pharisee addressed. ‘But he was a mere insurrectionist, making no pretension 
to any of the honours of that great prophet whom the Jews were expecting. 
The person referred to in the text, appeared in Judea in the time of Cuspius 
Fadus, the governor, and professed to be inspired, to be a prophet, and to 
have the gift of miracles. Judas of Galilee, or the Gaulonite, mentioned also 
by Gamaliel, was a political partizan, in opposition to the enrolment made 
by Cyrenius in Judea, whose doctrine was that the Jews were free, and 
should acknowledge no dominion but that of God. Neither he, nor the elder 
Theudas, can with any propriety be numbered among “false Christs,” or 
“false Prophets,” such as the Saviour spoke of in the prophecy under consi 
deration. See Lardner, i. 221—225, 


* Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, b. 20. c. v. 1. + Ib. c. viii. 5. 
+ Josephus’ Wars of the Jews, b. 6.c. v. § 2 and 3. 


LECTURE VIII. 221 


pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against 
nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”* At this time, 
the Jews were at peace among themselves, and with all 
nations. To human view there was so little reason to 
expect a war, that even some years after when the emperor 
Caligula ordered his statue to be set up in the temple, and 
there was danger of slaughter, on account of the resistance 
of the Jews, Josephus remarks that “some of them could 
not believe the stories that spoke of a war.” Nevertheless, 
such became in a short time the rumour of war, that the 
fields remained uncultivated on account of the public anxiety. 
The country was soon filled with violence. In Alexandria, 
Ceesarea, Damascus, Ptolemais, Tyre, and almost every other 
city in which many Jews and Heathens were mingled, fierce 
contentions arose, and dreadful slaughter ensued. In the 
words of the Jewish historian: “'The disorders all over 
Syria were terrible. For every city was divided into parties 
armed against each other ; and the safety of the one depended 
on the destruction of the other. The days were spent in 
slaughter, and the nights in terrors.”t In addition to these 
calamities, the Jewish nation rebelled against the Romans; 
Italy was convulsed with contentions for the empire; and, 
as a proof of the troublous and warlike character of the 
period, within the brief space of two years four emperors of 
Rome suffered death.§ 

III. Another class of signs was predicted, as follows: 
“ There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, 
im divers places.”|| These, together with the signs previously 
mentioned, the Saviour said would be “the beginning of 
sorrows.” ‘There came a famine not long before the war, 
which extended all over the country of the Jews, and lasted 
with severity for several years.{| Both before and after this 
there were famines in Italy, which are mentioned by histo- 


* Mat. xxiv.6,7. + Wars, &c. b. 2.¢.x.§ 1. 
t Wars, &c., b.2.¢. xviii. § 1 and 2.  § Keith on Prophecy. 
i Mat, xxiv. 7, 8. T Acts xi. 25—30, Ant. b, 20, ¢. i1.6; ¢. v. 2 


222 LECTURE VIII. 


rians of those days.* Pestilences raged in various places, as 
the full time for Jerusalem’s cup of trembling drew nigh.f 
Josephus speaks of one at Babylon. Five years before the 
destruction of the holy city, there was a great mortality at 
Rome, while various parts of the empire were visited with 
similar calamities. Harthquakes were also among the signs 
of the times. Of these, the heathen historians, 'Tacitus, 
Suetonius, Philostratus, é&c., speak of many. Crete, Italy, 
Asia Minor, and Judea, were visited at different times, and 
some of them repeatedly, with earthquakes.t Josephus 
describes one, in Judea, as so extraordinary in its awfulness, 
that “any one (he remarks) might easily conjecture that 
these wonders foreshowed some grand calamities that were 
coming.”§ 

IV. To the signs already mentioned, we find, in Luke’s 
account of these prophecies, the addition of “fearful sights, 
and great signs from heaven.” These sights and signs 
Josephus sets himself to the work of narrating, with as much 
particularity as if he had been specially bent upon making 
good the words of Christ. He relates that just before the 
desolating war, “a star resembling a sword stood over the 
city, and a comet that continued a whole year.” At the 
feast of unleavened bread, and “at the ninth hour of the 
night, so great a light shone round the altar and the holy 
house, that it appeared to be bright daytime; which light 
lasted for half an hour.” “'The eastern gate of the inner 
court of the temple, which was of brass and vastly heavy, 
and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and had 
bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, was seen to be 
opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night.” 
This, the learned of Jerusalem understood as a signal of 
approaching desolation. Moreover, “before sun-setting, 
chariots and troops of soldiers, in their armour, were seen 
running about among the clouds and surrounding cities.” 


* Ant. b.3.c. xv. 3. + Lardner, iii. 499. ¢ Ib. iti. 499. 
§ Wars, &c., b. 4. c. iv. § 5. 


LECTURE VIII. 223 


“ At the feast of Pentecost, as the priests were going by night 
into the inner court of the temple, they felt a quaking, and 
heard a great noise, and after that they heard the sound as 
of a multitude, saying: ‘Let us remove hence?” But the 
sign which Josephus considered the most impressive, was 
that of a man named Jesus, who, four years before the war, 
at a time of entire peace, having come to the feast of taberna- 
cles, began suddenly to cry aloud: “A voice from the east— 
a voice from the west—a voice from the four winds—a voice 
against Jerusalem and the holy house—a voice against the 
bridegrooms and the brides; and a voice against the whole 
people.” With this cry he went through all the city, day and 
night. No severity of punishment; no acts of kindness — 
could silence this voice. He spoke neither good nor ill to 
any, whether they gave him food or scourging. For seven 
years and five months, his solemn cry continued; until its 
warning was just about to be fulfilled. A little while before 
the city was taken, as he was going round upon the wall, he 
cried with his utmost force : “ Wo, wo to the city again, and. 
to the people, and to the holy house ;” and just as he added, 
“wo to myself also,” a stone from one of the engines killed 
him immediately.* 

However incredible the narrative of these signs may seem 
to some, it is not a little in its confirmation that the Roman 
historian, Tacitus, speaking of the same time and place, 
says: “"There were many prodigies presignifying their ruin, 
which were not to be averted by all the sacrifices and vows 
of that people. Armies were seen fighting in the air with 
brandished weapons. A fire fell upon the temple from the 
clouds. ‘I'he doors of the temple were suddenly opened. At 
the same time there was a loud voice, declaring that the 
gods were removing, which was accompanied with a sound as 
of a multitude going out. All which things were supposed 
by some to portend great calamities.” Whether all these 


* Wars, &e. b. 6, ¢. v. § 2 
t Lardner, iii. 613. Tacit. Hist. b. 5, @. ix.—xiii. 


224 LECTURE VIII. 


things did really take place, or whether some or all of them 
were not the conceits of superstitious and excited minds, I 
shall not discuss; nor is the question at all material to our 
present object. Certain it is that they were regarded as reali- 
ties at the time, and consequently were in effect, “fearful 
sights and great signs from heaven” to the Jews, whatever 
they may have been in reality. It required as much of the 
spirit of prophecy to predict that the Jews should believe 
such things to have occurred, as to predict any thing else 
that did certainly occur. Whatever we may conclude, 
therefore, concerning the singularly concurrent testimony 
of the Jewish and Roman historians, the prophecy of the 
Saviour was most impressively fulfilled. 

V. From the calamities of the nation and city, our Lord 
continued his prophecy to those of his own followers: “ Be- 
fore all these, they shall lay their hands on you and perse- 
cute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into 
prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my 
name's sake.”* “ They shall kill you; and ye shall be hated 
of all nations for my name's sake.”"t “I will give you a 
mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shalt not be 
able to gainsay nor resist." For the proof of the accom- 
plishment of all this, the Acts of the Apostles afford abundant 
evidence. Remember how Saul made havoc of the church, 
entering into every house; punishing the christians in every 
synagogue, and persecuting them even unto strange cities. 
Peter and John were delivered to councils. Paul was brought 
before kings. The former were also imprisoned. Paul and 
Silas were not only imprisoned but beaten.$ "There was 
given them indeed a wisdom, which their adversaries were 
not able to gainsay nor resist. The very discourses of 
Peter that caused his persecution subdued thousands into 
obedience to the faith of Christ.|| The murderers of Stephen 


* Luke, xxi.12, + Mat. xxiv.9. Luke, xxi. 15. 
§ Acts, viii. 3—xxvi. 10, 11.—iv. 5.—xviii. 12.—xxiv. and v.—iv. 3. 
> Acts, ii, 41. 


LECTURE VIII. 225 


were not able to resist the wisdom with which he spake.* 
The jailor that incarcerated Paul and Silas in the evening, 
was their convert before the morning.t Felix trembled, and 
Agrippa was almost persuaded to be a Christian, under the 
speech of Paul. Stephen and James were put to death. 
There is reason to believe that none of the original apostles 
or evangelists, but John, died a natural death. Christians 
were counted as the Sifth of the world, being literally hated 
for the very name they bore. About six years before the 
destruction of Jerusalem, arose the tremendous persecution 
under Nero, when it was enough that any one was called by 
the name of Christian, to lead him to torture. Tacitus bears 
witness, not only to their exquisite sufferings, but also to the 
fact that they were held in universal hatred on account of 
their religion and name.t{ 

VL. “ Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one 
another, and hate one another ; and because iniquity shall 
abound, the love of many shall waz cold.”§ The apostle of the 
Gentiles, in his epistles, complains of Demas, and Phygellus, 
and Hermogenes, and many others in Asia, who turned away 
from him ; and that when he first appeared at the bar of Nero, 
no man stood with him, but all forsook him. And Tacitus 
speaking of the persecution by Nero, says: “ At first, those who 
were seized confessed their sect ; and then, by their indica- 
tion, a great multitude were convicted.”% 

Vil. Immediately after the prediction of the outward 
persecutions and internal defections by which the servants 
of Christ were to be troubled, there follows this remarkable 
prophecy: “ This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
in all the world, for a witness unto all nations ; and then 
shall the end come.”** 'The end, referred to, was that of the 
Jewish polity, which entirely ceased at the destruction of the 
Jewish metropolis and temple. Jesus prophesied that before 


* Acts, vi. 10. + Acts, xvi. 32—4. + Lardner, iii. 498. Tac. Ann. 15. c, 44. 
§ Mat. xxiv. 10—12. 1 2 Tim. i. 15.—vi. 10—iv.16. 7 Ann. b. xv. 
** Mat. xxiv. 14. 

Le 


226 LECTURE VIII. 


this, that is, in forty years from the time when he uttered 
these words, the gospel would be preached in all the world. 
Of all that was then in futurity, what could have been more 
improbable, or to human view, more impossible than this? 
The gospel was then received but by a handful of unlettered 
Jews. In a few days after, its author was crucified as a 
malefactor; his disciples were scattered and discouraged ; 
his enemies triumphant, and the gospel seemed at an end. 
When the infant church was gathered together in Jerusalem, 
immediately after the ascension of its Head, the number of 
the disciples that could be collected, was but one hundred and 
twenty. What, but the omniscience of God could have 
foreseen, that in less than forty years that church would be 
extended into all countries of the known world? But thus 
it came to pass: “It appears from the writers of the history 
of the church, that before the destruction of Jerusalem, the 
gospel was not only preached in the Lesser Asia, and Greece, 
and Italy, the great theatres of action then in the world, but 
was likewise propagated as far northward as Scythia, as far 
southward as Ethiopia, as far eastward as Parthia and India, 
as far westward as Spain and Britain.”* The epistles of 
Paul, in the New Testament, were directed to churches 
then flourishing in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, 
Colosse, and Thessalonica. In the Epistle to the Romans, 
he asserts that the christian faith was then (ten years before 
the end) “ spoken’ of throughout the world.”t 'To the Colos- 
sians, about three years after, he asserts that “the gospel had 
(then) been preached to every creature under heaven,’t 
meaning that to all nations, without distinction, it had been 
published. ‘Tacitus bears witness that, in the sixth year 
before the destruction of Jerusalem (Nero’s persecution), the 
religion of Christ had not only extended over Judea, but 
through Rome also; and that its followers were then so 
numerous, that “a vast multitude’ were apprehended and 
condemned to martyrdom.§ Thus, impossible as such an 


* Newton, ii. 257,8. + Rom.i.18. +Col.i23. § Tae. Ann. b. xv. — 


LECTURE VIII. Bat 


event must have seemed at the time when this prophecy was 
uttered, the end did not come until the gospel of the kingdom 
of Christ was preached “in all the world.” We know not 
which should be considered the most impressive evidence that 
God was with the gospel; this wonderful fact, brought to 
pass by such means, and in the face of such universal and 
deadly opposition ; or the prophetic eye by which the Saviour 
predicted, in circumstances so unpromising, that thus it 
would be. 

VI. The next prophetic sign brings us almost to the 
awful catastrophe. “ When ye shall see Jerusalem com- 
passed with arnues ;” or, as the expression is in Matthew : 
“ When ye shall see the abomination of desolation stand in 
the holy place,” “then know that the desolation thereof is 
nigh.” “Then let them which be in Judea flee to the moun- 
tains : let him that is on the house-top not come down to take 
any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the 
field return back to take his clothes.”* 

By the abomination of desolation standing in the holy 
place, Matthew expresses the same thing as when Luke 
speaks of Jerusalem being compassed with armies. The 
standards of the Roman armies had on them images to which 
idolatrous worship was paid, and which were therefore an 
abomination to the Jews. On this account, we read that a 
Roman general, when conducting his army through Judea 
towards Arabia, was besought by the principal Jews to lead 
it another way.t “Every idol and every image,” says 
Chrysostom, “was called an abomination among the Jews.” 
These idolatrous ensigns being connected with a desolating 
army, constituted them the abomination of desolation ; and 
when the Roman army planted its standards around the holy 
city, the abomination of desolation literally stood in the holy 
place, or on holy ground. ‘This the Saviour predicted. It 
was to be the signal to Christians that the desolation of 
Jerusalem was nigh. ‘Then they were to escape with haste 


* Luke, xxi. 20, Mat. xxiv. 15, 16, 17, 18. t Ant. b: 18, c. vi. § 3. 


228 LECTURE VIII. 


to the mountains. The warning implied that, even after the 
city was encompassed with armies, they would have an oppor- 
tunity of escape ; but, at the same time, that the opportunity 
would be brief. All this came to pass. One would suppose 
that the Christians, in having delayed till the city was sur- 
rounded with a besieging host, would thus have waited till 
all escape was cut off. But a remarkable providence took 
care that they should await the sign, and yet obey the admo- 
nition to flee. Cestius Gallus, the Roman general, at the 
commencement of the war, besieged the city; took possession 
of the suburbs ; encamped over against the royal palace ; and 
might easily, Josephus says, have got within the walls, and 
won the city. Indeed “many of the principal men were 
about to open the gates to him.” But although the abomina- 
tion of desolation was thus in the holy place, the followers of 
Christ were there also. The time of the end, therefore, was 
not yet come. An opportunity must be found for them to 
flee. ‘The Lord sees to this. Just as the city was ready to 
open its gates to the Roman chief, “he recalled his soldiers 
from the place—without having received any disgrace; and 
retired from the city, without any reason in the world.” This 
the Jewish historian expressly ascribes to a special interposi- 
tion of Providence; though he knew not its object. It could 
be accounted for on no military or prudential considerations. 
Josephus relates that many principal men of Jerusalem em- 
braced this oppottunity to depart from the city as from a 
sinking ship.* A short time after, when the Roman armies 
were again approaching with the abomination of desolation 
towards the holy place, our historian states that a great 
muliitude fled to the mountains.t Among these, were 
probably the disciples of Christ. But we learn more certainly 
from ecclesiastical historians, of the early centuries, that, at 
this crisis, all the followers of Christ took refuge in the 
mountainous regions beyond Jordan; thus obeying the pro- 
phetic warning of their Lord; so that there is nowhere any 


* Wars, b. 2, c. xx. § 1, t Ib. b. 4, . viii. § 2, 


LECTURE VIII. 229 


mention of a single Christian having perished in the siege 
and destruction of Jerusalem.* But as the Saviour fore- 
warned them: what they were to do, they had to do quickly. 
For as soon as Jerusalem was again encompassed with 
armies, it was surrounded entirely with a wall, so that, in the 
words of the historian, “all hope of escaping was now cut 
off from the Jews.”t 

Who the enemy would be, and the power, and fury, and 
universal spread of his desolations, the Saviour foretold, by 
the use of this proverbial expression: “ Wheresoever the 
carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”t 
Prophecy often speaks a great deal in a few words. ‘The 
carcass was the Jewish nation given over, as thoroughly 
corrupt and forsaken of God, to be devoured as by birds of 
prey. An army is distinguished by its banners. ‘They con- 
stitute its characteristic insignia. 'T'he banners of the Roman 
army were surmounted by eagles—emblems of strength, of 
swiftness, and ferocity. By these the Saviour described it as 
that which would desolate Jerusalem. Literally, wherever 
the carcass was, these eagles were gathered. Josephus testi- 
fies that all parts of the land participated in the desolations 
of Jerusalem.§ The legions of Rome, like flocks of birds of 
prey, flew from city to city, spreading devastation and 
slaughter wherever they planted their standards. With 
eagle-swiftness, they descended upon the unprepared popula- 
tion; with eagle-strength, they triumphed over every oppo- 
sition; with eagle-fierceness, they devoured and tore in 
pieces, sparing neither age nor sex, sending into hopeless 
slavery the few to whom the sword denied its mercy. 'The 
melancholy record of Jotapata relates that all its population 
were slain but infants and women. ‘These were carried into 
bondage. The rest, forty thousand, were slaughtered. Joppa 
was demolished ; the neighbouring villages were destroyed ; 
the whole region was laid waste, Of all the population of 


* Lardner, iii. 507. Newton, ii. p. 266. + Wars, b. 5, c. xii. § 2, 3. 
t Mat. xxiv. 28.  § Wars, b. 4, ¢. vill.§ 1. 
19* 


230 LECTURE VIII. 


Gamala, two women alone escaped. Here, not even infants 
were spared the sword. Such was the extreme awfulness of 
the slaughter, that many Jews in preference threw their 
children, their wives, and themselves, from the hill, on which 
the citadel was built, into the deep abyss below. ‘The num- 
ber that perished thus, was computed at five thousand. 
These are but a few cases out of the many which illustrate 
the perfect accomplishment of the prediction before us.* 

X. But our Lord foretold not only the enemy by whom 
Jerusalem would be destroyed, but the means by which it 
would be taken. “ The days (said he) shall come upon 
thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and 
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every sidet A 
trench and a wall or embankment always go together in 
military operations. Both were certainly intended here. 
But it was exceedingly improbable that such a measure 
would be resorted to in the siege of Jerusalem. The nature 
of the ground, and the great extent of the city, rendered it 
extremely difficult. It had never been attempted in the 
previous sieges of the same place. It was not necessary, 
because, had the Roman general been content to wait a little, 
the famine and the contending factions within the city would 
soon have delivered it into his possession. After all, it was 
contrary to the advice of his chief men, and was adopted 
only because a more protracted siege would have been less 


* How minutely were the enemy and his desolations described by Moses 
as much as one thousand five hundred years before the war! ‘The Lord 
shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift 
as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a 
nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor 
shew favour to the young: and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the 
fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee 
either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, 
until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until 
thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all 
thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land 
which the Lord thy God hath given thee. Deut. xxviii. 49—52. 

t Luke, xix. 43. 


LECTURE VIII. 231 


glorious. The higher cause, however, was, that he was 
God’s instrument unwittingly, to fulfil the words of Christ. 
Titus must confirm the prophetic character of Jesus. By 
building a wall about Jerusalem, he was to build up the 
defence of the gospel. The city was therefore literally com- 
passed round, and its inhabitants were kept in on every side 
by a wall and trench, put up by the troops of Titus, and 
measuring about five miles in circumference. Josephus is 
very particular in stating precisely the direction of the wall 
in its whole circuit.” 

XI. “These be the days of vengeance,” said the Lord; 
“for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from 
the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be.”t 
Days of vengeance, indeed, they were, when all that was 
written and threatened in Moses and the prophets was ful- 
filled. As if Josephus had written with the very words of 
the Saviour in view, he bears record, that in his opinion, 
“no other city ever suffered such miseries ; nor was there 
ever a generation more fruitful in wickedness, from the 
beginning of the world.” “It appears to me, that the mis- 
fortunes of all men from the beginning of the world, if they 
be compared to these of the Jews, are not so considerable.” 
“ For in reality it was God who condemned the whole nation, 
and turned every course that was taken for their preservation 
to their destruction.” It is impossible to describe the truth 
in this case. “The multitude of those who perished (says 
our historian) exceeded all the destructions that man or 
God ever brought on the world.”t At the commencement 
of the siege, immense multitudes having come up from all 
parts of the country to the feast of the passover, ‘he nation, 
literally, was crowded into Jerusalem; so that the city was 
supposed to have in it upwards of two million, seven hun- 
dred thousand souls. The miseries endured by this impri- 

* Wars, &c. b. 5, aed. + Luke, xxi. 22. 


t Wars, &c. b. 5, c. x. § 5.—Preface to Wars, § 4.—Wars, b. 6, ¢. xiii. 
§4.—b. 6, ¢. ix. § 4: 


232 LECTURE VIII. 


soned multitude are minutely detailed in the history of the 
siege. Famine commenced, and numbered its thousands of 
unburied and loathsome victims. 'This destroyer raged so 
widely that the people devoured their shoes and girdles, the 
soldiers the leather on their shields. Wisps of old straw 
were turned into food. That which before they could not 
endure to see, they now consented to eat. United to these 
desolations were the remorseless cruelties of contending fac- 
tions. The city was filled with robbers, who divided its 
population into parties, more destructive than all the soldiery 
of the besiegers. Filled with rage and instigated by hunger, 
they alike refused to be at peace with each other, or to capitu- 
late to the common enemy. ‘They robbed the temple; slew 
the priests at the altar; defiled the sanctuary with a sea of 
blood. 'To keep each other from food, they fired storehouses 
containing provisions for a siege of many years. Whenever 
any corn appeared, bands of robbers instantly seized it. 
They searched every house in which they suspected there 
was food. Parents snatched it from their children; chil- 
dren spoiled it from the mouths of their parents. There 
was a lady of high birth and much wealth, who had come 
from the country, and was kept in Jerusalem by the siege. 
All her effects, and all the food she had saved for herself. 
and children, had been taken by the prowling bands that 
continually ranged the streets for prey. By imprecations 
and reproaches, she endeavoured in vain to provoke them 
to take her life as well as bread. At last she prepared a 
feast. Keen hunger found outa lamb. A mother’s despera- 
tion slew and served it. Having consumed a part, the rest 
was concealed. The smell of food soon brought in the 
wolves. ‘They threatened instant death unless she disco- 
vered it. With bitter irony she assured them that a Sine 
portion had been saved for them, and then uncovered what 
remained of the lamb. Jt was the half-eaten body of her 
infant son. Struck motionless with horror, they would not 
partake of it. ‘Then she upbraided them as pretending to 


LECTURE VIII. 233 


more tenderness than a woman, and more compassion than 
a mother. All the city, and the whole Roman camp, were 
filled with astonishment at this horrid evidence of the reign- 
ing wretchedness ; so that the dead were envied for having 
escaped the sight of such miseries.* But the wo went on. 
The prisoners taken in endeavouring to desert the city were 
nailed on crosses by the Roman soldiers, “some one way, 
some another, as it were in jest,” around the outside of the 
walls, “till so great was the number, that room was wanting 
for crosses, and. crosses were wanting for bodies.”t Thus 
had the Jews, forty years before, crucified the Lord of glory 
without the walls, with cruel jesting and bitter mockery.t 
Those who continued within the city took refuge in caverns, 
aqueducts, sewers, and other secret places, to escape from one 
another. ‘Titus, as he beheld the dead bodies that had been 
thrown from the walls into the valleys, “lifted up his hands 
to heaven, and called God to witness that this was not his 
doing.”§ ‘The number of those who perished during these 
“days of vengeance,” is computed by Josephus at upwards 
of one million, three hundred thousand ; and of these, one 
million, one hundred and fifty thousand were of Jerusalem, 
beside ninety-seven thousand carried into slavery, and an 
innumerable multitude who perished uncounted in various 
places, through famine, banishment, and other miseries. 
Add to this destruction of life, the complete ruin of their 
holy city and magnificent temple, dearer to the Jews than 

* How exactly did Moses, at least fifteen hundred years before, depict this 
very scene! He described even the rank, quality, and habits of the unhappy 
woman. “The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not 
adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and ten- 
derness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward 
her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out 
from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she 
shall eatthem for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness where- 
with thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.”—Deut. xxviii. 56, 577. 

t Wars, &c. b. 6,¢. iii. § 4.—b. 5, c. xi. § 1. 


t “ His blood be on us and on our children.” 
§ B.5, c. xii. § 4. i! Lardner, iii 529. 


234 LECTURE VIII. 


life; add moreover the universal desolation and almost 
depopulation of Judea; and you will find no difficulty in 
interpreting the Saviour’s prediction of “a tribulation such 
as was not from the beginning of the world.” It was when 
our compassionate Redeemer had all this in full prospect 
that “he beheld the city” from the mount of Olives, “and 
wept over it, saying, if thou hadst known, even thou, in this 
thy day, the things that make for thy peace, but now they 
are hid from thine eyes.”* How did the anticipation of all 
this misery affect him, when, as he was going to his cross, 
he turned to the women who wept and wailed because of 
him, and said: “ Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, 
but weep for yourselves and your children; for behold the 
days are coming, in the which they will say, Blessed are the 
barren and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which 
never gave suck. ‘Then shall they begin to say to the moun- 
tains, fall on us, and to the hills, cover us!” Who can help 
reflecting here upon that solemn question, “ What shall the 
end be of them that obey not the gospel of God 2” 

XII. We come now to the work of destruction, which 
forms the most remarkable particular in this wonderful 
prophecy. The ruin of the city was foretold in these words: 
“They shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children 
within thee: and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon 
another that shall not be thrown down.”t The ruin of the 
temple was foretold as follows. As the disciples were show- 
ing to Jesus the stupendous buildings of the temple, he 
answered: “Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left 
here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.”§ 
Most wonderfully was the spirit of prophecy manifested in 
these words. Every thing conspired to make the events 
appear improbable, and to prevent their occurrence, when 
the time predicted had arrived. Jerusalem was surrounded 
with three massive walls of immense strength, rendering its 


* Luke, xix. 42. + Luke, xxiii. 28, 29, 30. t Luke, xix, 44. 
§ Matthew, xxiv. 2. 


LECTURE VIII. 235 


garrison almost unassailable. except by famine, or pestilence, 
or internal discord.* Never were men more perfectly de- 
voted to the defence of a city than those of Jerusalem. None 
cared for life at the expense of her ruin. 'The garrison was 
ten times the number of the besiegers. It was, therefore, 
exceedingly improbable that the city would even be entered 
by the Romans. Such was the testimony of Titus, as he 
looked around upon its towers. “We have certainly,” said 
he, “ had God for our helper in this war. It is God who has 
ejected the Jews out of these fortifications. For what could 
the hands of men, or any machines, do towards throwing 
down such fortifications.” But it was equally improbable, 
even if the city were taken, that such complete destruction 
would be made of all therein. Think of the difficulty of 
completely destroying such an immense extent of triple wall, 
and of buildings within. 'Think of the temple! What a 
pile to be laid low! Its walls enclosed more than nineteen 
acres; that of the eastern front rose to a height of nearly 
eight hundred feet from its base in the valley beneath. In 
this, and the other walls, the stones were immense, the largest 
measuring sixty-five feet in length, eight in height, and ten 
in breadth. How great the difficulty of a thorough level- 
ling of such a structure, even under the instigation of the 
strongest motive! But what motive was likely to excite the 
Romans to such destruction? They prided themselves upon 
a veneration for the arts, and upon the sacred care with 
which, in all their conquests, the monuments of architectural 
taste were protected. ‘The temple was emphatically such a 
monument. ‘The immensity of its walls; its splendid gates 
and beautiful marble colonnades; the glory of its golden 
sanctuary ; the grandeur of its whole appearance; and all 


cae i 


* Gibbon, speaking of the strength of Jerusalem at this time, says: “The 
craggy ground might supersede the necessity of fortifications, and her walls 
and towers would have fortified the most accessible plain.” 

Decline and Fall, vol. viii. ¢. lviii. p. 144. 

t Wars, b. 6, c. ix. § 1. 


236 LECTURE VIII. 


its associations of antiquity and of sacredness, constituted 
the temple of Jerusalem precisely such an object as Roman 
commanders had always gloried in preserving from the deso- 
lations of conquest. Even barbarians were used to spare 
such monuments in their march of devastation. Genseric, 
when, with his Moors and Vandals, he had sacked the city 
of Rome, spoiled her wealth and carried away the ornaments 
of her temples and capitol, but spared her noble structures ;* 
and to this day, after all the scenes of war that have raged 
through her streets, the pillar of Trajan, the triumphal arch 
of Titus, the unmutilated Pantheon, and the noble Colis- 
seum, with numerous other monuments of art, attest the- 
ancient glory of the mistress of the world. How often have 
hostile armies filled the streets of Athens, and hordes of 
Gothic barbarians encamped amidst her sanctuaries; and 
yet the beautiful temple of Theseus is scarcely injured, as 
a model of architecture, and the Parthenon, though defaced 
and robbed, remains, a noble example still of the grandeur 
and purity of Athenian taste in the age of Phidias and Peri- 
cles. How improbable then must it have seemed to one 
beholding the temple in the days of our Lord, that Romans 
should lay it even with the ground. Much more improbable, 
had the cultivated taste, and the mild, amiable, and humane 
disposition of ‘Titus, their commander, been anticipated. 
Still more improbable, when it is remembered how strongly 
he was bent upon saving the city and temple from destruc- 
tion ; how he employed all the means in his power to induce 
the Jews to surrender, before such extremities were neces- 
sary.t When he had reached the temple, and saw the danger 
it was in of being sacrificed to the obstinacy of its defenders 
and the rage of his own soldiers, he was “ deeply affected,” 
and appealed to the gods, to his army,:and to the Jews, that 
he did not force them to defile the holy house. “If (said he) 
you will change the place whereon you will fight, no Roman 


* Gibbon, v. 5. 
t Wars, &c., b. 5, c. viii. § 1L—e. ix. § 2,—c, xi. § 2—b. 6, ¢. ii, § 1, 


LECTURE VIII. 237 


shall either come near your sanctuary, or offer any affront 
to it; nay, I will endeavour to preserve your holy house 
whether you will or not.”*_ But the Lord of that temple had 
said: “Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” God 
would not suffer the prophetic words of his son to return 
unto him void. Now, therefore, even the authority of Titus 
was of no avail with his troops. Now the discipline of the 
Roman legion was broken up that all that was written might 
be fulfilled. When the fire first reached the temple, their 
commander despatched a force to extinguish it. As it broke 
out again, he again used his authority to save the edifice. 
A soldier, disobeying the will of his general, threw fire into 
the golden window of the inner sanctuary. At this, Titus, 
followed by all his chief officers, rushed to the place, and 
by voice, and gesture, and force, exerted himself most ear- 
nestly to prevail with his troops to spare the building. He 
ordered a centurion to punish the disobedient. But neither 
his threatenings nor persuasions could arrest their fury. At 
last, a soldier taking advantage of his absence, when he had 
gone out of the sanctuary to restrain the others, “threw fire 
upon the holy gate in the dark; whereby the flame burst out 
from within the holy house immediately.”t And thus was 
it devoured by the fire. And now orders were given to 
demolish to the foundation the whole city and temple. 
Nothing was spared of the former but three towers, and so 
much of the wall as was required for a shelter to the garrison 
to be stationed there. “ As for all the rest of the whole cir- 
cumference of the city, it was so thoroughly laid even with 
the ground, by those who dug it up to the foundation, that 
there was nothing left to make those who came thither he- 
lieve it had ever been inhabited.”{ In quest of plunder, the 
soldiers literally turned up the ground on which the city and 
temple had stood, searching the sewers and aqueducts. Last 
of all, itis related by the Jewish Talmud and Maimonides, that 
* Wars, b. 6, c. ii. § 4. + Wars, b. 6, c. iv. § 2, 3, 4, 5, &e, 
t Wars, b. 7, ¢. i. $1. 20 


238 LECTURE VIIt. 


a captain of the army of Titus (Terentius Rufus), “did with 
a ploughshare tear up the foundations of the temple.” 
“A ploughshare,” says Gibbon, “was drawn over the conse- 
crated ground, as a sign of perpetual interdiction.” ‘Thus 
literally fulfilling that prophecy of Micah: “'Therefore shall 
Zion, for your sakes, be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem 
become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high 
places of the forest.”t How forcibly is the perfect fulfilment 
of the Saviowr’s prediction illustrated in the speech of Elea- 
zer to a remnant of Jews in the city of Masada: “ Where 
is now that great city, fortified by so many walls, and for- 
tresses, and towers; which could hardly contain the instru- 
ments prepared for the war, and had so many ten thousands 
of men to defend it? Demolished to the very foundations; 
and hath nothing left but the camp of the destroyers among 
its ruins; some unfortunate old men also lie upon the ashes 
of the temple, and a few women are there preserved alive, 
by the enemy, for our bitter shame and reproach.”t 

XIII. But the prophecy of our Lord did not end with the 
destruction of the city and of the civil and ecclesiastical polity 
of the Jews. His omniscient eye followed the unhappy race 
in their subsequent dispersions and afflictions. “ They shall 
fall by the edge of the sword, and shail be led away captive 
into all nations.” How many fell by the edge of the sword, 
in fulfilment of these words, I need not state. Blood flowed 
through the streets of Jerusalem like a river. But many who 
escaped the sword were led away captive into various parts 
of the earth. Before the city was taken, it is related that an 
“ymmense number” of deserters, having fallen into the hands 
of the besiegers, were sold “with their wives and chil- 
dren.”|| Besides ninety-seven thousand, who went into slavery 
from Jerusalem alone, there were sent from 'Tarichea to Nero, 
six thousand choice young men, while thirty thousand, from 
the same place, were sold. Similar convoys of slaves were 


* Whitby on Mat. xxiv.2. + Mich. iii. 12. + Wars,b. 7, ¢. viii. $7. 
§ Luke, xxi. 24. i Wars, b. 6, ¢. vili. § 2. 


LECTURE VIII. 239 


marched from many other desolated towns. Of the captives 
from Jerusalem, the tall and handsome were carried to Rome 
to grace the triumphal entry of Titus. Of the remainder, 
many were sent as slaves to the public works in Egypt; but 
the greater number were distributed through the Roman 
provinces, literally “into all nations,’ to be slain by gladia- 
tors, or exposed to wild beasts in the shows of the amphithea- 
tre. From that time to the present, the history of all the 
nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, is filled with testimonies 
to the prophetic spirit of him, who, when Jerusalem was in 
peace and strength, predicted the approaching and yet existing 
calamities of her sons. In what country of the world, as 
then known, have they not been persecuted and enslaved 2 
But in addition to the captivity of the people, “ Jerusalem 
(saith the Lord) shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until 
the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Yt is well ascertained, 
by corresponding passages of the Bible, that by this expres- 
sion, the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled, was intended 
the universal ingathering of the nations to the faith of Christ. 
This has not yet arrived. Jerusalem is therefore still trodden 
down of the Gentiles, just as she has been, ever since the 
ploughshare of the Roman desolation was first driven over 
the ruins of her temple. The hand of Providence, in the 
uninterrupted fulfilment of this prediction down to the present 
time, is wonderfully manifest. Two things are specially to 
be noted in the prophecy: First, that the Jews were never to 
‘be re-established in Jerusalem ; and secondly, that it was not 
only to be in possession of, but to be “trodden down of the 
Gentiles,” until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. 
_ That the Jews have never been re-established in Jerusalem 
since its destruction, has not been owing to any want of 
desperate effort on their part; nor because the power of the 
Gentiles. has not been vigorously employed in their behalf. 
In about sixty-four. years after their almost total expulsion 
from Judea, under the conquest of Titus; Jerusalem was 


partially rebuilt by the emperor Adrian. A Roman. colony 


240 LECTURE VIII. 


was settled there, and all Jews were forbidden, on pain of 
death, to enter therein, or even to look at the city from a 
distance. Soon after this, the Jews revolted with great fury, 
and made a powerful effort to recover their city from the 
heathen. They were not subdued again without great loss 
to the Romans, and immense slaughter among themselves. 
In the reign of Constantine the Great, their eflort was re- 
peated, and terminated as before, in perfect defeat, with in- 
creased massacre and oppression. But in the person of the 
nephew of Constantine, their zeal for the rebuilding of their 
temple was associated with the determination of the emperor 
Julian to overthrow christianity ; and between the power of 
a Roman sovereign with a victorious army at his feet, and 
the exulting enthusiasm of the whole remnant of the Jewish. 
people, a union was formed for the single object of rearing 
up the temple with its ancient ritual, and of planting around 
it a numerous colony of Jews, which, to all human judgment, 
bore the assurance of complete success. The grand object 
of Julian was to convert “the success of his undertaking into 
a specious argument against the faith of prophecy, and the 
truth of revelation.”* A decree was issued to his friend 
Alypius, that the temple of Jerusalem should be restored in 
its pristine beauty. 'T’o the energies of Alypius, was joined 
the support of the governor of Palestine. At the call of the 
emperor, the Jews from all the provinces of the empire assem- 
bled in triumphant exultation on the hills of Zion. "Their 
wealth, strength, time, even their most delicate females, were 
devoted with the utmost enthusiasm to the preparation of the 
ground, covered then with rubbish and ruins. But was the 
temple rebuilt? The foundations were not entirely laid! 
Why? Was force deficient? or zeal, or wealth, or perse- 
verance, when Roman power and Jewish desperation were 
associated? Nothing was lacking. “ Yet (says Gibbon) the 
joint efforts of power and enthusiasm were unsuccessful, and 
the ground of the Jewish temple still continued to exhibit the 


* Gibbon. 


LECTURE VIII. 24] 


same edifying spectacle of ruin and desolation.” There was 
an unseen hand, which neither Jews nor emperors could 
overcome. ‘The simple account of the defeat of this threat- 
ening enterprise of infidelity is thus given by a heathen 
historian of the day, a soldier in the service, and a philoso- 
pher in the principles of Julian. “Whilst Alypius, assisted 
by the governor of the province, urged with vigour and dili- 
gence the execution of the work, horrible balls of fire break- 
-Ing out near the foundation, with frequent and reiterated 
attacks, rendered the place, from time to time, inaccessible to 
the scorched and blasted workmen; and the victorious ele- 
ment continuing in this manner obstinately and resolutely 
bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertaking 
was abandoned.”* “ Such authority should satisfy a believ- 
mg, and must astonish an incredulous mind,” acknowledges 
even the sceptical Gibbon. He cannot but own that “an 
earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, which over- 
turned and scattered the new foundations of the temple, are 
attested, with some variations, by contemporary and respecta- 
ble evidence.” One writer, who published an account of 
this wonderful catastrophe, in the very year of its occurrence, 
boldly declared, says Gibbon, that its preternatural character 
was not disputed, even by the infidels of the day.t Another 
speaks of it thus: “ We are witnesses of it; for it happened 
in our time, not long ago. And now, if you should go to 
Jerusalem, you may see the foundations open; and if you 
inquire the reason, you will hear no other than that just 
mentioned.”t 
Whether this attempt of Julian was defeated by miraculous 
interposition, is a question which our present object does not 
require us to argue.§ Two things are certain. First: That 
the power and wealth of the Gentiles were united with the 


* Ammianus Marcellinus. + Gibbon’s Dec. and Fall, vol. iii. chap. xxiii. 

t Chrysostom. See Lardner, iv. 324. 

§ See the miraculous character of this event very ably advocated in Bishop 
Warburton’s Julian. 


20° 


242 LECTURE VIII. 


devoted enthusiasm of the Jews, to defeat the prophecy of 
Christ, by rebuilding the temple, and by re-establishing its 
ritual, and by reorganizing a Jewish population as possessors 
of Jerusalem. Secondly: That contrary to all expectation, 
when nothing was lacking for the work, and none in the 
world lifted a finger against it, it was suddenly abandoned, 
on account of sundry alarming and singular phenomena 
bursting from the original site of the temple, by which even 
the fanaticism of the Jews was deterred, and the enmity of . 
Julian to the gospel, defeated. These undeniable facts are 
sufficient to show, with impressive evidence, the hand of God, 
protecting the prophetic character of our Lord. When, in 
connexion with these, you consider the great anxiety so 
universally felt among the Jews of all centuries, to enjoy the 
privilege of living and dying in Jerusalem; that no risk of 
life, or sacrifice of property, would be thought too great for 
the purpose of once more setting up the gates and altars of 
the holy city ; that the nation is now as numerous as at any 
period of its ancient glory ; and yet that during almost the 
whole period since the destruction of Jerusalem, so entirely 
have Jews been prevented from living on her foundations, 
that they have had to purchase, dearly, the permission to 
come within sight of her hills; and to this day are taxed 
and oppressed to the dust, as the cost of being allowed to walk 
her streets, and look, at a distance, upon her mount Moriah ; 
you will acknowledge that the prediction of our Saviour, in 
reference to their exclusion from Jerusalem, has been not 
only most strikingly fulfilled, but fulfilled in spite of the most 
powerful causes and efforts for its defeat. 

But it was predicted that Jerusalem should not only be pos- 
sessed by the Gentiles, but “trodden down” by them, till their 
times should be fulfilled. What the soldiers of Titus did, 
has already been stated. From that time, during sixty-four 
years, a Roman garrison alone inhabited the ruins. At the 
end of these years, the city was rebuilt by the emperor Adrian, 
under the name of Glia; a Roman colony was planted 


LECTURE VIII. 243 


there; all Jews were banished on pain of death; every 
measure was used to destroy sacred recollections, and dese- 
crate what were esteemed as holy places. The city was 
consecrated to Jupiter Capitolinus; a temple was erected to 
the pagan god, over the sepulchre of Jesus, a statue of Venus 
was set up on mount Calvary; and the figure of a swine, 
placed in marble on the gate that looked towards Bethlehem. 
Jerusalem continued in possession of the Roman emperors 
till subdued in the year 637 A. D. by the Saracens. The 
king of Persia had, in the mean while, besieged and plundered 
it, but his dominion was too short-lived to claim an excep- 
tion from this statement.* In the hands of Mohamme- 
dans, sometimes of Arabian, sometimes of Turkish, and 
sometimes of Egyptian origin, it continued to be literally 
trampled down and desecrated, during a period of more than 
four hundred years; when having been taken by the crusa- 
ders, its government was assumed by one of their leaders, 
and Christians alone were allowed to dwell therein. Only 
about eighty-eight years elapsed, however, before the cres- 
cent of Mohammed was again planted upon the hill of Zion ; 

where to this day, it has remained, with a single teat 
exception, undisturbed either by Jew or bhiastiaty During 
the seven centuries of this uninterrupted dominion of Ma- 
hommedanism, Jerusalem has been captured and recaptured, 
again and again by the various contending families and fac- 
tions of the followers of the Arabian prophet. 'The desola- 
tions of war; the marches of contending hosts, have indeed 
“trodden down” her melancholy hills. In the sixteenth 
century, when Selim, the ninth emperor of the Turks, visited 
the city, it lay, just as it had been seen by the famous Tamer- 
lane more than one hundred years before, “miserably deform- 
ed and ruined,” inhabited only by a few Christians, who 
paid a large tribute to the sultan of Egypt for the possession 
of the holy sepulchre.”t Its condition still, is thus stated by 


* Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, vol. vi. p. 206, c. xlvi: 
+ Newton on Prophecy, ii, 319—334. 


2AA EKECTURE VIII. 


a recent traveller: “At every step, coming out of the city, 
the heart is reminded of that prophecy, accomplished to the 
letter: ‘Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles: 
All the streets are wretchedness; and the houses of the 
Jews more especially (the people who once held a sceptre on 
this mountain of holiness) are as dunghills.” “ No expres- 
sion could have been invented more descriptive of the visible 
state of Jerusalem, than this single phrase, ‘ trodden down.’ “a 
“Not a creature is to be seen in the streets,” says another 
traveller, “not a creature at the gates, except, how and then, 
a peasant gliding through the gloom, concéaling under his 
garments the fruits of his labour, lest he should be robbed of 
his hard earnings by the rapacious soldier. ‘The only noise 
heard from time to time, in the city, is the galloping of the 
steed of the desert.”t “The Jerusalem of sacred history is, 
in fact, no more. Not a vestige remains of the capital of 
David and Solomon; not a monument of Jewish times is 
standing. The very course of the walls is changed, and the 
boundaries of the ancient city are become doubtful.” 

Thus, during a period of seventeen hundred and sixty 
years, have the captivities, and dispersions, and oppressions 
of the Jewish people, together with the desolate condition of 
their city and temple, most signally attested the prophetic 
character of our Lord. And shall we not hence be confident 
that what remains of his prediction will be accomplished? 
Will not the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled? Will not 
Jerusalem continue, until then, to be trodden down of the 
Gentiles? And then, will it not cease to be subject to them ? 
And does not the expression of the prophecy imply that it 
will be again rebuilt and possessed by the Jews in the day 
when “all Israel shall be saved?” “For what reason can. 
we believe that, though they are dispersed among all nations, 
yet by a constant miracle, they are kept distinct from all, but 
for the further manifestation of God’s purposes towards 


* Jowett’s Researches, p. 200. + Chateaubriand. 
t Modern Traveller, Palestine, 75. 


LECTURE VIII. 245 


them? 'The prophecies have been accomplished to the greatest 
exactness, in the destruction of their city, and its continuing 
still subject to strangers; in the dispersion of their people, 
and. their living still separate from all people; and why 
should not the remaining parts of the same prophecies be as 
fully accomplished in their restoration, at the proper season, 
when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled ?’* 

We have now exhibited the exact fulfilment of all the par- 
ticulars of this remarkable prophecy, with one exception. 
The Lord specified the time of those great events which he 
so minutely foretold. “ This generation shall not pass away 
ill all these things be fulfilled.” Forty years had not 
elapsed from the date of this prediction, before all things 
referred to in it had taken place. 

And now let me add but a few words in conclusion. 

No charge can be brought against the prophecy which we 
have been exhibiting, on the score of obscurity or ambigu- 
ousness of expression. It is expressed in the plainest terms, 
and admits of but one interpretation. Nothing can be said 
in detraction from its claim to inspiration, on the ground of its 
being general in its expression. It is singularly particular, 
as well as comprehensive. Nothing can be said in denial 
of the complete correspondence between these various pre- 
dictions and the history of the times and places to which 
they refer. We have drawn the evidence from sources which 
cannot be suspected of any partiality to the prophetic cha- 
racter of Jesus. The History of the Wars of the Jews by 
Josephus, the Jewish priest; the Annals by Tacitus, a Roman 
consul; and the History of the Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire by Gibbon, the English sceptic, are all the 
vouchers we require. What, then, is the alternative to 
which the student of prophecy is reduced? He must either 
acknowledge that Jesus was possessed of the spirit of genuine 
prophecy; or that he was so sagacious as to be able to fore- 
tell all these particulars, when no one else could see any sign 

neg reig ety 


* Newton, ii. 836. 


246 LECTURE VIII. 


of them; or that the Gospels containing these predictions 
were written after the events. The first the sceptic is re- 
solved at all hazards to deny ; the second he cannot suppose ; 
the last he must assert or give up his cause. For the same 

reason, thereture, that the heathen Porphyry, when he could 
~ not deny the strict correspondence between the prophecies of 
Daniel and the subsequent history of Egypt and Syria, rather 
than confess that Daniel was a prophet, contradicted every 
principle of historical testimony for the sake of pretending 
that he must have written after the occurrence of what he 
foretold. So have some modern Porphyries been driven to 
assert that the Evangelists who relate this prophecy of Jeru- 
salem must have written after the city was destroyed.” I 
need not say that the only reason pretended to in support of 
this assertion is the very thing we have been labouring to 
show, the strict agreement between the prophecy and the 
event. Their argument is neither more nor less than the fol- 
lowing: If these words were written before the destruction 
of Jerusalem, Jesus was a genuine prophet. But we will not 
believe him to have been a genuine prophet. Therefore 
these words were not written before the destruction of Jeru- 
salem. A conclusion as shameless as it is senseless; as oppo- 
site to the faith of all history as to the rules of all sound 
criticism, and the opinion of the learned of all ages. It 
shows the strength of the argument from prophecy, as well 
as the infatuated obstinacy with which the human heart is 
capable of resisting whatever would bind it to the obedience 
of Christ. 

But let us not forget that the destruction of Jerusalem, 
with its signs and tribulations, is set in the scriptures as a 
type of an unspeakably more awful and momentous event— 
THE END OF THE worLp. A day cometh when “the sun 
shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and 
the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the hea- 
vens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the 


* Voltaire——Watson’s Ap. for Bible, 169. 


— 


LECTURE VIII. QAT 


son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the 
earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the. 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall 
send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they 
shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one 
end of heaven to the other.”* When that day shall arise 
on the world, knoweth no man. One thing we know, that 
it will find us just as death shall find us. Death, to each of 
us, will be virtually the coming of the Son of man. Then 
our eternal state will be sealed. "Therefore doth wisdom 
utter her voice: O ye sons of men, prepare to meet your 
God! for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man 
cometh. Watch! walk as children of light. Embrace the 
promises of the gospel, and live by faith in Christ Jesus the 
Lord! “Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he 
cometh, shall find so doing.” 


POSTSCRIPT. 

The following remarks on the subject of chance, in connexion with prophecy, 
though in a measure anticipated in the quotation from Dr. Gregory, at the end 
of the last lecture, are too valuable to be omitted, and constitute a most appro- 
priate supplement to all that has been said on this most interesting branch of 
the evidences of christianity. They have been kindly prepared, at the request 
of the author, by a friend and parishioner, who finds no incompatibility be- 
tween a supreme devotion of himself to the faith and service of Christ, and 
an eminent proficiency in mathematical and other human sciences. 

“The argument from the fulfilment of prophecy, which appears so strong 
and conelusive in its affirmative aspect, is no less so when the negative mode 
of reasoning is adopted. We may waive, for example, the idea of a divine 
intelligence operating in the annunciation and fulfilment of prophecy, and 
attempt to account for the facts mentioned in some other way. But upon 
what other principle can we account for them? The prophetic scheme is evi- 
dently too vast and multifarious for human agency; and this excluded, there 
remains only the hypothesis of chance—the negation of all intelligence, human 
and divine. The law of events, under this supposition, is the same as that by 
which probabilities are calculated in some of the pursuits and occupations of 
life; and an argument on this point, therefore, resolves itself into a mere 
application of the theory of probabilities to the subjects of prophecy. If it 
result from such application that the fulfilment was an event to be calculated 
upon with some degree of reasonableness, independently of any intelligent 


aca iene vere a ea A a REAL eS 
* Mat. xxiv. 29, 30, 31 


ZAR LECTURE VIII. 


supervision, then are we at liberty to adopt the philosophy of chance; but 
otherwise we are bound to reject it. 

“The laws of chance, applicable to the case, may be briefly stated as follows: 
When circumstances seem to determine an event equally, in two different 
ways, the chances are said to be equal; and the expectation of either result is 
expressed, with evident truth, by the fraction 1-2. But when the determining 
circumstances are wnequailly divided, so that any proportion, more or less than 
half of the whole number, operates in favour of a particular result, the chance 
of that result is expressed by the corresponding fraction. If a ball, for exam- 
ple, is to be drawn from a bag containing equal numbers of white and black, 
the probability of a white one being drawn is expressed numerically by 1-2; 
but if there be only one fifth of the whole number white, the ratio of expecta- 
tion will be 1-5, and so for any other proportion: and this 1s the general law 
of simple probability. 


“The probability of a joint occurrence, when two independent events are 


expected, is determined by the product of their simple ratios; for there must 
evidently be, in this case, a whole range of possible results, as regards one 
event, corresponding to each possible result of the other; and by a parity of 
reasoning, the same truth is made evident for any number of events jointly 
considered. If balls, for example, are to be drawn concurrently from two or 
more bags, containing different proportions of black and white, the probability 
of the whole result being while will be found in the compound ratio of all those 
proportions: thus, if one contains 1-2 white, another 1-5th, another 1-8th, and 
another 1-10th, there will be one chance in 800 that, in drawing one ball from 
each, the whole four will be white; and this is the general law of compound 
probability. : 

“With these premises let us open the book of prophecy, and select an ex- 
ample from among the various remarkable events there predicted. We choose 
one of so extraordinary a character as to place it among the most improbable 
events (humanly speaking) of any age or nation; but to be quite sure that 
we do hot over-estimate it, we suppose it to have an equal chance of general 
fulfilment; expressed, as we have said, by the fraction 1-2. This does not, 
however, include the particularities of time and place, both of which are com- 
prehended in the terms of the prediction. With regard to time, we observe, 
that as there is no natural circumstance to determine the event spoken of to 
one age or period more than another, the probability of exact fulfilment in this 
respect must be inversely as the whole number of ages in which it might have 
taken place. Tvs, if we allow forty years for the average duration of an 
age, is about sixty ; and the fraction 1-60th, therefore, expresses the contingency 
of time in the case supposed. With regard to place, the probability of exact 
fulfilment is evidently determined by the relation of the locality named to the 
whole world. This, in the case referred to, is not greater than that of one to 
100,000; and the fraction 1-100,000, therefore, is the numerical factor for this 
element of probability. Combining these three ratios, we obtain an aggre- 
gate of no less than twelve millions of chances against the fulfilment of the 


LECTURE VIII. 249 


ussumed event at the time and place designated; and this event is the personal 
appearance ot Jesus Christ upon earth as the Saviour of the world. 

“Remarkably associated with this appearance in many ancient predictions, 
was the continuance of the Jewish dominion, and of the temple at Jerusalem ; 
the joint contingency of which, according to the principles explained, cannot 
be rated at less than 1-340th. A multitude of predictions are found, also, in 
various parts of scripture, relative to extraordinary particulars in the life, 
character, and death, of our Saviour, as well as with reference to the political 
and social aspect of the times in which he appeared. Many of them are so 
nearly miraculous in their nature, or so minute and circumstantial in their 
details, as almost to preclude the idea of chance in any sense. And we are 
very sure, therefore, that we do not assume too much in assigning to twenty 
of them an average equal chance of non-occurrence. Proceeding upon this 
ground, we find the probability of their joint occurrence opposed by a disparity 
of more than a million of chances to one ; and it results from the combination 
of all the ratios thus found, that the advent of our Saviour, in all its characte- 
ristic circumstances and relations, could not have been calculated upon as a 
matter of fortuitous occurrence, with more than one in four thousand millions 
of millions of chances. The term probability can scarcely be applied with 
propriety to a case so very remote; but the argument does not stop here. 

“Our Saviour, at a time when all the calculations of human forethought 
were diametrically opposed to him, predicted the general dissemination of his 
gospel, and the consummation of prophecy with regard to the destruction of 
Jerusalem, in the short space of a single generation: and so it turned out. By 
the laws of probability, neither event had, at the utmost, more than one 
chance in ninety of occurring at that particular time; and there was, there- 
fore, only one in 8,100 of their joint occurrence. 

“The predictions relative to the siege of Jerusalem, the subjugation of 
Judea, and the dispersion and subsequent condition of the Jews, present many 
particulars equally remarkable in character and fulfilment. We select twenty. 
four, which have severally a degree of probability not greater than 1-2, and 
the result is an aggregate of nearly seventeen millions of chances opposed to 
their joint occurrence. 

“The predictions of the Old and New Testament relative to the state and 
condition of the church in various ages, and its influence upon the moral and 
political welfare of mankind, furnish another class of particulars which have 
been singularly verified. The individual probability of most of them would 
be much less than 1-2; but we concede this, and limit ourselves to twelve 
points, the aggregate contingency of which is about 1-4000th. 

“Finally, the prophecies of the Old Testament relative to the Gentile 
nations around Judea, and the great empires Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, 
&e., present about fifty particulars worthy of notice in this calculation. To 
avoid, however, all possibility of error, we consider only half that number, 
from which we deduce the expectation of their united fulfilment in about the 
ratio of one to thirty-three millions. 


21 


250 LECTURE VIII. 


“There remains still a vast number of correlative and circumstantial details, 
not reducible to any of the foregoing heads, which are found scattered through 
the pages of scripture, and furnish a “ thick array” of corroborative evidence 
for the affirmative view of the subject; but we need not fear to waive the use 
of them in the present calculation, The composition of the ratios already 
determined gives an aggregate which it requires nearly forty places of figures 
to enumerate, and which the utmost powers of the human mind may vainly 
attempt to appreciate. If we should even assume a single grain of sand for 
the numerator of the fraction, the whole globe of the earth, repeated many 
millions of times, would scarcely suffice for its denominator; and such is the 
extreme improbability of any consistent fulfilment of the scriptural prophecies 
on the principles of chance. 

“Jt will not be objected to this calculation that it regards the different sub- 
jects of prophecy as parts of one and the same system; for although they 
were in fact uttered by different prophets and in diffierent ages of the world, 
they are all united by a common subject; and that with a degree of consistency 
and harmony scarcely less wonderful than the fulfilment itself.” 


LECTURE Ix. 251 


LECTURE Ix. 
THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 


THERE is a peculiarity in the argument for the divine 
authority of christianity, which we cannot but notice in the 
commencement of this lecture.» While the several parts unite 
with the utmost harmony and prodigious strength in the 
construction of one grand system of evidence; each is a 
perfect argument in itself, and capable of furnishing, had we 
nothing else on which to depend, an ample support for the 
whole fabric of christianity. We speak of the several parts 
composing that general division to which these lectures are 
restricted—the external evidence—such as the miracles ; the 
prophecies ; and that on which we are now about to enter, 
the propagation of christianity. The two former have been 
discussed. We praise the subject, not the lecturer, in saying 
that we have not only established on solid ground the genu- 
ineness of the miracles of the gospel, and the prophetic 
attestation to the divine mission of our Lord ; but that, in 
having done thus, we have twice finished the proof of chris- 
tianity, as a divine revelation. It was complete when we 
had shown that Jesus and his apostles were attended by the 
credentials of genuine miracles. It was commenced again 
and completed a second time, and by a course of argument 
entirely different, when we had shown that Jesus was a 
prophet, as well as the great subject of prophecy. We are 
now to begin anew, hoping to prove a third time, and bya 
course of evidence entirely different from either of the pre- 
ceding, that the Gospel of Christ is none other than “ the 
glorious Gospel of the blessed God.” Our argument will be 
drawn from the rapid propagation of the gospel, in contrast 
with the difficulties it had to overcome. | 


252 LECTURE IX. 


It was only forty days after the resurrection of Christ, that 
he delivered to his little band of apostles the parting charge: 
“ Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture.” “Go, teach (or disciple) all nations; baptizing them 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost”. In other words; Go, carry the war of the truth 
into the midst of its enemies; think not your work com- 
pleted till you have planted the cross upon the high places 
of the heathen, and have gathered together my elect “ from 
the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Such 
was the work intrusted to those few, unlearned, despised 
disciples, who formed almost the whole strength of the 
christian church in the day when their beloved Master was 
received out of their sight, and ascended into heaven. Now 
let us consider in the first division of this lecture: 

L Tue pvirricuutiss they had to surmount in executmg 
this command. Be it remarked, 

1st. In the first place, that the idea of propagating a 
new religion, to the exclusion of every other, was at that 
time a perfect novelty to all mankind, with the exception of, 
perhaps, a few individuals of the Jews, specially enlightened 
in the prophetic declarations of the Old ‘Testament scriptures. 
The Jewish religion was, indeed, sufficiently exclusive; but 
in its external organization it was neither designed nor adapt- 
ed for extensive promulgation. Nothing could have been 
more perfectly foreign to all the reigning opinions, prejudices, 
and dispositions of that insulated nation, in the days of the 
apostles, than the thought of attempting to convert even a 
single city of the Gentiles to their unsocial system of reli- 
gion. Their zeal was indeed extremely energetic in behalf 
of whatever involved the security and honour of their faith; 
but, in regard to other nations, it was the zeal of jealousy to 
keep them at a great distance, rather than of invitation to 
bring them to a participation in their superior privileges. 

The charge of the Saviour to his apostles was, if possible, 
still more novel to the Gentiles than the Jews. Heathenism 


—_->-_ 


LECTURE IX. 253 


had never been propagated from place to place. In its innu- 
merable forms, it had grown up out of the depraved disposi- 
tions of human nature, all over the world; as thorns and 
thistles, though never sown by the husbandman, are found 
every where on the face of the earth. Without a creed, it 
was without principle ; and therefore had nothing to contend 
for but the privilege of assuming any form, worshipping any 
idol, practising any ritual, and pursuing any absurdity, which 
the craft of the priesthood, or the superstitions and vices of 
the people might select. It never was imagined by any de- 
scription of Pagans that all other forms of religion were not 
as good, for the people observing them, as theirs was for 
them; or that any dictate of kindness or common sense 
should lead them to attempt the subversion of the gods of 
their neighbours, for the sake of establishing their own in 
their stead. So that nothing could have been more perfectly 
new, surprising, or offensive to the whole Gentile world, than 
the duty laid upon the first advocates of christianity, to go 
into all nations, asserting the exclusive claims of the gospel, 
denouncing the validity of all other religions, and labouring 
to bring over every creature to the single faith of Christ. 
Had christianity been content to stand, without urging its 
right to stand alone, the heathen nations might have allowed 
it as much toleration as they were accustomed to yield to the 
various systems of idolatry among themselves. An altar 
would, perhaps, have been vouchsafed, in many an idol 
temple, to the Christian’s God; and an image, in honour of 
Christ, might have been permitted a place among the divini- 
ties of the Pantheon. But its character being rigidly exclu- 
sive, and yet its spirit universally benevolent, the apostles 
must have seen at once that they were charged with a work 
not only perfectly new, but which would necessarily bring 
them into conflict with all the institutions, passions, customs, 
prejudices, and powers of all nations of the world.* 


* A religion, under which all men could unite with one another, appeared 
to the ancients an impossibility. ‘A man must be very weak (said Celsus), 
1* 


254 LECTURE IX. 


2d. But the difficulties to be surmounted by the apostles 
were not confined to the novelty of their enterprise, and the 
exclusiveness of their faith. In the whole character of the 
gospel, as a system of religious doctrine, and a rule of heart 
and life, there was a barrier in the way of its progress, which 
to human wisdom and power would have rendered their cause 
perfectly desperate. 'T'o propagate any religion at the ex- 
pense of every other, would have been to them, in their own 
strength, destitute as they were of all earthly auxiliaries, a 
hopeless task; but to propagate the religion of the gospel, 
was unspeakably more difficult. A system of doctrine par- 
taking, in the least degree, of any of its characteristic quali- 
ties, was a thing entirely unimagined among the Heathen, 
and scarcely thought of, by one in ten thousand of the 
degenerate posterity of Abraham. Religion, among the Gen- 
tiles, was a creature of the state ; it consisted exclusively in 
the outward circumstance of temples, and altars, and images, 
and priests, and sacrifices, and festivals, and lustrations. It 
multiplied its objects of worship at the pleasure of the civil 
authorities; taught no system of doctrine, recognised no 
system of morality, required nothing of the heart, committed 
the life of man to unlimited discretion, and allowed any one 
to stand perfectly well with the gods, on the trifling condition 
of a little show of respect for their worship, to whatever 
extent he indulged in the worst passions and lowest pro- 
pensities of his nature. Heathen religion, in all its forms, 
was the most perfect contrast to every thing spiritual, holy, 
humbling, selfdenying. Nothing could have been more 
foreign. to every habit of thought, in the mind of a native 
of Greece or Rome, than the scripture doctrine of the nature 
and guilt of sin, of repentance, conversion, faith, love, meek- 
ness, and purity of heart. Their languages had scarcely 
expressions sufficiently approximated to these subjects to 
admit of their explanation without the coinage of new words 


to imagine that Greeks and barbarians, in Asia, Europe, and Lybia, can ever 
unite under the same system of religion.” 


LECTURE IX. 255 


for the purpose. And in many respects the whole race of the 
Jews, degenerate as they were in the time of the apostles, 
were as little prepared for a spiritual, heart-searching reli- 
gion, as any people of the Gentiles. 

Then imagine the incipient effort of the disciples of Christ 
to gain over the nations to the obedience of the gospel. What 
could they say to them by way of conciliation, of all their 
systems of religion and habits of living, to which, from time 
immemorial, they had been accustomed? Nothing but 
unqualified, uncompromising reprobation. What could they 
offer as a substitute, and with what recommendations could 
they propose it? T'he unity of God, to the extermination 
of all idolatry; the fall of man and his entire ruin and 
condemnation by sin, to the utter subversion of all their 
proud conceit of their own merit, and of the dignity of their 
degraded nature ; the necessity of a new heart, including 
repentance and holiness, and humility, and the diligent 
pursuit of all godliness of living, to the complete breakmg 
up of all their philosophy; the mortification of all their 
pride, and the direct prohibition of all those unbridled pas- 
sions and odious vices which then held such universal domin- 
ion in the world. It was no aid to the work of the apostles, 
that, besides the above unwelcome truths and requisitions, the 
gospel stipulated for a habit of secret prayer, a life of faith; 
a heart animated with patience, gentleness, forgiveness, and 
benevolence, to all mankind; and, above all, a single reli- 
ance for peace with God upon the death and intercession of 
One who had been crucified as a malefactor, despised and 
rejected even by the despised nation of the Jews. 

It is easy to perceive from this brief sketch of some of the 
peculiarities of the gospel, in contrast with all that was loved, 
and practised, and gloried in by the nations of the earth, that 
while a new religion, willing to make terms with the habits 
and corruptions of men, might, if aided by the fascinations 
of eloquence, the enticements of worldly interest, and the 
arm of secular power, have gained some advancement; 


256 LECTURE IX. 


Christianity, with its uncompromising spirit; its holy require- 
ments, and its twelve unlettered and despised apostles for its 
whole earthly strength, must have perished in its infancy, had 
not the “Mighty Ruler of the universe” been its friend. 

3d. From what has been said, it is manifest that the 
enterprise of the apostles must have arrayed against it all the 
influence of every priesthood both among Jews and Heathens. 
In the beginning of christianity the priests of the Jews were 
not only very numerous and degenerate, but exceedingly 
influential in their nation. 'They were, in reality, the nobility 
of Judea. The power of the magistracy was, in a great 
measure, in their hands. The people were educated under 
their charge. They held the reins of public opinion, and 
headed all the great public movements of the community. 
What tremendous resistance they were capable of making 
to the advancement of christianity ; how bitterly they replied 
to those claims which pronounced the dissolution of their 
priesthood, and the termination of their authority ; and with 
what deadly concert they persecuted its blessed Author, 
thinking they had put also his gospel, when they had put his 
person to the cross, I need not remind you. 

We turn to the priests of the Gentiles. The enterprise 
of the apostles was directly at war with their dignities, their 
influence, and their gains. What resistance they were capa- 
ble of making, is obvious from a consideration of the exten- 
sive establishment, the high official dignity, the wealth, the 
political influence, and the superstitious veneration, attached, 
in the first years of christianity, to a heathen priesthood. 
“The religion of the nations,” says Gibbon, “was not merely 
a speculative doctrine, professed in the schools or preached in 
the temples. The innumerable deities and rites of polythe- 
ism were closely interwoven with every circumstance of 
business or pleasure, of public or of private life; and it 
seemed impossible to escape the observance of them without, 
at the same time, renouncing the commerce of mankind. 
The important transactions of peace and war were prepared 


LECTURE IX. 257 


or concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which the magistrate, 
the senator, and the soldier were obliged to participate.” The 
Roman senate was always held in a temple or consecrated 
place. Before commencing business, every senator per- 
formed an act of homage to the gods of the nation. The 
several colleges of the sacerdotal order, in the single city of 
Rome—the fifteen Pontiffs ; the fifteen Augurs; the fifteen 
keepers of the Sibylline books; the six Vestals; the seven 
Epuli; the Flamens ; the confraternities of the Salians and 
Lupercalians, &c., furnish an idea of the strong establish- 
ment of the priesthood in an empire that embraced the known 
world. ‘The dignity of their sacred character was protected, 
as well by the laws as the manners of the country. “ Their 
robes of purple, chariots of state, and sumptuous entertain- 
ments, attracted the admiration of the people; and they 
received from the consecrated lands and public revenue an 
ample stipend, which liberally supported the splendour of the 
priesthood, and all the expenses of the religious worship of 
the state.” The great men of Rome, after their consulships 
and military triumphs, aspired to the place of pontiff or of 
augur. Cicero confesses that the latter was the supreme 
object of his wishes. Pliny was animated with a similar 
ambition. ‘Tacitus, the historian, after his preetorship, was a 
member of the sacerdotal order. 'The fifteen priests, compos- 
ing the college of pontiffs, were distinguished as the com- 
panions of their sovereign. And as an evidence of what 
accommodations paganism must have had in Rome in the 
days of her glory; the number of its temples and chapels, 
remaining in the three hundred and eightieth year after the 
birth of Christ, when, for more than three centuries, chris- 
tianity had been thinning the ranks of its votaries, and for 
sixty years had been the established religion of the empire, 
was four hundred and twenty-four." In connexion with 
all this organization and deep rooted power of heathenism ; 
consider its various tribes of subordinate agents and interested. 


* Gibbon, vol. iv. ¢. XXvili. 


258 LECTURE IX. 


allies; the diviners, augurs, and managers of oracles, with 
all the attendants and assistants belonging to the temples of 
a countless variety of idols; the trades whose craft was sus- 
tained by the patronage of image-worship, such as statuaries, 
shrine-mongers, sacrifice-sellers, incense-merchants ; consider 
the great festivals and games by which heathenism flattered 
the dispositions of the people, and enlisted all classes and ail 
countries in its support—the Circensian and other grand 
exhibitions among the Romans; the Pythian, Nemean, Isth- 
mian, and Olympic games, celebrated with great pomp and 
splendour in almost every Grecian city of Europe and Asia 
—the pride of the people, the delight of all the lovers of 
pledsure or of fame, intimately associated with, and specially 
patronised by the religion of idols; and therefore directly 
attacked by all the efforts of christianity. Then say, what 
must have been the immense force in which the several 
priesthoods of all heathen nations were capable of uniting 
among themselves, and with the priests of the Jews, in the 
common cause of crushing a religion by whose doctrines 
none of them could be tolerated. That with all their various 
contingents, they did unite, consenting in this one object, if 
in little else, of smothering christianity in her cradle, or of 
drowning her in the blood of her disciples, all history assures 
us. How she survived their efforts; how the fishermen of 
Galilee could have overcome their whole array without the 
help of God, is a problem which infidelity only shows its 
own weakness by attempting to solve. 

Ath. But the authority of the magistrate was united with 
the influence of heathen and Jewish priesthoods in zealous 
hostility to the gospel. In all countries, the support of the 
religion of the state was the duty of the magistrate. 'Toler- 
ation, among the most civilized heathens, much as it has 
been eulogized by infidels, allowed of no religion that would 
not permit entire communion, on the part of its followers, in 
the worship appointed by the state. On this condition it 


LECTURE IX. 259 


countenanced the utmost latitude of belief and practice.* 
But to refuse conformity with the national rites, and worship 
to the national gods, was an offence unpardonable, not only 
to the gods, but to the civil authority. This it was that ex- 
cited so much wonder among the Gentiles, and nerved the 
secular arm with such deadly offence against the disciples 
of Christ. “ Keep yourselves from idols” was a precept that 
met the pagan Greek and Roman whenever he beheld a 
Christian. ‘“ What can be the reason (said a Roman prefect 
to an Alexandrian bishop) why you may not still adore that 
God of yours, supposing him to be a God, in conjunction 
with our Gods?’ “We worship no other God,” was the 
Christian’s answer ;t a declaration which, from the sword of 
a heathen magistrate, could have no forbearance, and being 
every where received as a characteristic principle of the 
gospel, called out the whole power of the civil governments 
of the Gentiles to unite with their priesthoods in its de- 
struction. 

5th. 'T'o these associated powers, were added the prejudices 
and passions of all the people. These, among the Gentiles, 
were powerful, not only in favour of their own idolatries, but 
especially in aversion. to a religion originating among Jews; 
still more to a religion advocated by Jews who were despised 
and persecuted by their own despised countrymen ; and yet a 
great deal more to a religion so spiritual and holy, so utterly 
at war with vice and idolatry, as that of the gospel. 

See, in the Epistle to the Romans, a picture from the pen- 
cil of a master, of the fierce passions, the vicious debasements, 
which universally characterized the Gentile nations in the 
days of St. Paul. “ Filled with all unrighteousness, fornica- 


* “The Athenian notion of toleration is well described by Socrates, and 
much resembles the opinion on that subject that many entertain, even in our 
own times. ‘It appears to me, says Socrates, that the Athenians do not 
greatly care what sentiments a man holds, provided he keeps them to himself ; 
but if he attempts to instruct others, then they are indignant.’ ” 

Douglas on Errors, &c. 212. 

t Euseb. Hist. Eccl. vii. c. xi. 


260 LECTURE IX. 


tion, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, 
murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, 
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventers of evil 
_ things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, cove- 
‘nant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerci- 
ful: Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which 
commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the 
same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”* This de- 
scription is borne out, to the letter, by the testimonies of 
heathen writers. Paul has furnished a picture of the morals 
of his own nation corresponding with it in all essential fea- 
tures. What, then, could the gospel, with all its holy 
duties and spiritual doctrines, encounter in such a world, but 
a most violent opposition from the whole mass of the people ? 
6th. But the wisdom and pride of the heathen philophers 
were by no means the least formidable enemies with which 
the gospel had to contend. ‘Their sects, though numerous 
and exceedingly various, were all agreed in proudly trusting 
in themselves that they were wise, and despising others. 
Their published opinions; their private speculations; their 
personal immorality ; made iliem irreconcilable adversaries 
of christianity. It went up into their schools, and called 
their wisdom foolishness, and rebuked their self-conceit. It 
“came not with excellency of speech,” or “the enticing words 
of man’s wisdom,” “doting (as they did) about questions and 
strifes of words ;” but knowing nothing among men save 
Jesus Christ and him crucified, it just bade them repent, be 
converted, become as little children, and believe in a crucified 
Saviour for peace with God. This was, indeed, “to the 
Greek foolishness.” “ What will this babbler say?” “He 
seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods,” were the taunt- 
ing words of certain of the Epicureans and Stoics when they 
encountered St. Paul. Mockery was the natural expression 
of their minds “when they heard of the resurrection of the 


* Rom. i. 29-32. 


LECTURE IX. 261 


dead.”*. The apostles, therefore, in attempting to propagate 
the gospel among the Gentiles, were opposed. by all the wit, 
and learning, and sophistry ; ail the pride and jealousy, and 
malice, of every sect of philosophers. And how formidable 
was this hostility, is obvious, from the great credit, supe 
even to that of the priests, among the higher classes of 
which those sects had obtained. ‘Whoever pretended to 
learning or virtue was their disciple ; the greatest magistrates, : 
generals, kings, ranged themselves under their discipline, — 
were trained up in their schools, and professed the opinions 
they taught.”t 

7th. In connexion with these powerful adversaries, con- 
sider the character of the age in which the apostles under- 
took the propagation of christianity. It was distinguished as’ 
one of profound peace among" the nations, when the minds of 
men were peculiarly capable of deliberately investigating the 
claims of the gospel; it was the Augustan age, when phi- 
losophy thronged the cities with her disciples, and every 
description of polite literature was in the highest cultivation. 
Its peculiar feature was directly the reverse of credulity. No 
age of the world, before or since, was so extensively charac- 
terized by scepticism. While the great mass of the plebeians 
were superstitiously given to idolatry, the patricians were no 
less corrupted with opinions which went to the denial of all 
religion. Among the various schools which then divided the 
learned of the Roman empire; those which declared openly 
against the most fundamental truths of religion were much 
the most numerous. Of this description were the E’picure- 
anst and Academics ; the former maintaining that the soul 
was mortal, and that, if gods there were, they took no care 
of human affairs ; the latter, that to arrive at truth was im- 
possible; that, “whether the gods existed or not; whether 
the soul was mortal or immortal ; virtue preferable to vice, 


* Acts, xvii. 18—32. t Lyttletons’s Conversion of St. Paul. 
t Cicero complains that of all sects of philosophers, this made the most 
remarkable progress and gained the most adherents. De Finibus. 


262 LECTURE IX. 


or vice to virtue ;’ could not be ascertained. ‘These two 
sects, the one atheist, the other too sceptical even to believe in 
atheism, were the most numerous of all others in the age of 

heapostles, and were particularly encouraged by the liberality 
of the rich and the protection of the powerful.* From this 

lence of philosophy “ falsely so called,” the age was dis- 
tinguished for curious and bold inquiry; the learned every 
where, like those of Athens, spending their time in little 


_ else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.t It was, 


om 


also, for the same reason, an age of special contempt for 
whatever claimed to be received as supernatural. While 
every city, through the influence of the priests and magis- 
trates, was wholly given to idolatry, so far as the multitude 
and the external aspect of all classes were concerned ; yet, in 
the inner schools of philosophy and the private opinions of 
the educated, it was almost entirely pervaded with scepticism. 
Add to this, its necessary companion, the universal preva- 
lence of unprecedented luxury and dissoluteness of living ; 
and you will have a true outline of the character of the age 
in which the apostles, by “the foolishness of preaching,” 
knowing “nothing among men save Jesus Christ and him 
crucified,” were to “destroy the wisdom of the wise,” and 
convert whole nations to christianity. 

Most evidently, was the age peculiarly and entirely unpropi- 
tious. Nothing, on human calculation, could have been 
more certain of utter rejection and contempt, at such a time, 
than the simplicity, spirituality, and holiness of the gospel ; 
especially its two cardinal points, humble repentance and 
submissive faith. 

8th. Consider, next, to whom the propagation of the 
gospel was committed. ‘Who were they that received the 
commission, “ Go preach the gospel to every creature,” and 
“make disciples of all nations?” Men, adapted to such a 
mighty work in no single qualification, except to show, m 
their weakness, that their success was altogether of God! 


* Mosheim’s Hist., part I. § xxi. + Acts, xvii. 


Sa 


LECTURE IX. 263 


They were neither philosophers, nor orators, nor educated 
men. They were from a class of mankind denominated by 
the ruling nations, barbarians ; they were of that nation 
among the barbarians, whom all the rest of the world parti- 
cularly despised; they were of that portion of the nation, 
which was least esteemed by its own members. 'They were 
poor, without the least worldly consideration or influence. 
They were acquainted with no craft but that of publicans 
and fishermen. ‘They had never learned any language but 
that of Galilee, and yet they were to preach to people of all 
languages. Such were the men whose work it was to assault 
the high and fenced walls of Judaism; to break the power 
of heathenism, though entrenched in the vices of the people; 
upheld by the craft of their priesthoods; defended by the 
power of all nations; and sanctioned by the traditions of 
immemorial ages. Such were the men who were to go into the 
proud schools of philosophy ; show their wisdom to be fool- 
ishness; teach their teachers; bring out captives to the 
humble faith of the crucified Nazarene; and baptize them 
in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost. 

9th. Consider the circumstances of depression and discou- 
ragement in which they commenced this work. The enemies 
of their Master had just succeeded in putting him to the shame 
of the cross, wider accusation of capital guilt. Their taunt- 
ing language to the agonizing victim: “ Come down from the 
cross, if thou be the Son of God,” shows what a death-blow 
they supposed themselves to have given to his cause. All 
his disciples had forsaken him and fled. The stone upon 
the mouth of his sepulchre was not heavier than the weight 
upon their hearts, when they beheld him dead and buried. 
After a few days, they assembled together again in Jerusalem, 
when an upper room contained the whole congregation of 
those that believed in Christ. Their cause was universally 
supposed to have died with its Master. The fact that he had 
not been saved by the power of God from the disgrace of 


264 LECTURE IX. 


crucifixion, was regarded every where as a perfect answer to 
all his claims. Such was the beginning of the propagation 
of the gospel. These were the desperate circumstances in 
which the unfriended, unprotected, ridiculed apostles were to 
set up their banner. What could they do? 

10th. Consider the mode they adopted. 'They sought no 
favour from worldly influence; courted no human indul- 
gence; waited for no earthly approbation ; paid as little 
deference to rank, or wealth, or human learning, as to poverty 
and meanness. 'They spake as men having authority ; as 
ambassadors, commissioned from a throne, and sustained by a 
power before which, they had a right to demand that priests, 
and philosophers, and kings, should submit. “Not with 
enticing words of man’s wisdom,” did they seek to advance 
their cause; but in simple reliance upon “the demonstration 
of the Spirit.” Instead of selecting such doctrines as would 
best conciliate their hearers, and concealing the rest; they 
fixed their preaching most emphatically on what they knew 
was the special topic of derision and mockery both to Jew 
and Greek: glorying in nothing save in the cross of Christ. 
Instead of seeking retired and ignorant people as the subjects 
of their efforts ; instead of a double doctrine, as the philoso- 
phers had—one thing for the world, another for their disciples 
—a part for the novice—the whole only for the initiated— 
they kept back nothing, any where; declaring boldly the 
whole gospel in the most public places and before the greatest 
enemies. “Jesus and the resurrection,” were preached as 
freely to Epicureans and Stoics in Athens, as to publicans and 
sinners in Jerusalem. Instead of accommodating their declara- 
tions in any degree to the vainglorious and vicious characters 
of those whom they addressed ; they declared the wrath of 
God to be “ revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and. 
unrighteousness of men.” 'T’o every soul that would bea 
Christian, they issued the requirement, “depart from iniquity,” 
“crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts,” and be willing 
to be esteemed a fool and persecuted to death for Christ’s 


LECTURE IX. 265 


sake. Such was the mode selected by these powerless Gali- 
leans, by which to subdue the fierce opposition of the proud, 
self-righteous Jews, and to make Christians out of Greeks 
and Romans, alike devoted to degrading vices, and puffed up 
with the conceit of superior wisdom. 

11th. Now let us see in what manner the attempt to propa- 
gate christianity was received. It was met every where by 
the most strenuous hostility, and the fiercest persecution. 
From the first discourse of the apostles, down to the three 
hundred and fifth year of the christian era, persecution never 
entirely ceased, while its more public and general onsets fol- 
lowed one another in such close succession, that the church 
had hardly time to bury her dead before she was called to 
prepare more candidates, by thousands at a time, for the 
tortures and triumphs of martyrdom. The preaching of the 
apostles began at Jerusalem, and there also persecution began. 
Saul hunted Christians with the appetite of a bloodhound 
Stephen was the first victim. Soon the brethren were scat- 
tered far and wide by the fury of the storm. James was 
slain with the sword ; Peter, imprisoned for execution ; Paul, 
scourged and stoned, and pursued so continually that, in 
every city, bonds and afflictions awaited him. Whatever 
Jewish hate, goaded on by a jealous priesthood, could do, was 
put in requisition to crush the cause. All the devices that 
Roman governors, seconded by the superstitions and passions 
of the several nations of heathenism, could employ, were 
united in the one business of driving back the advancing 
cause of Christ. His disciples were calumniated as atheists; 
enemies of man; murderers and devourers of their own 
children ; and as guilty of the most loathsome and horrible 
practices.* Instruments of torture were exhausted. Jews 
and Gentiles, soldiers, slaves, governors, and emperors, racked 


*“ The Atheists,” was the universal name for Christians. To the charge 
of dire hostility to all religion, was added that of combined rebellion against 
all law and all mankind. “ Irreligiosi in Casares, hostes Cesarum, hostes 
popult Romani,” was their universal character, among their enemies. 


Q* 


266 LECTURE IX. 


their ingenuity to find out new ways of tempting Christians 
to unfaithfulness, and, when they were steadfast, of increasing 
their agonies without hastening their death. Every province, 
and city, and village, was a scene of martyrdom. ‘The great 
principle of tne ruling powers was, that this “superstition,” 
as they called it, must at all hazards be put down. “In a 
short time, the punishments of death were so common, that, as 
related by the writers of those times, no famine, pestilence, or 
war, ever consumed more men at a time.” he edict of 
Trajan, commanding the presidents to inflict capital punish- 
ynent on all who would not renounce christianity, was never 
abrogated while heathenism reigned in Rome.” What perse- 
cution was in the heart of the empire, it was also in Africa, 
Persia, Arabia, Capadocia, Mesopotamia, Nicomedia, Phry- 
gia, and in almost every place where the christian name was 
known. “'Those who suffered for the cause of Christ, men, 
women, youths of both sexes, were so numerous as to be 
estimated only in the mass.” “In torments they stood 
stronger than their tormentors; their bruised and mangled 
limbs proving too hard for the instruments with which 
their flesh was racked and pulled from them; the blows, 
however often repeated, could not conquer their impregnable 
faith; even though they not only sliced and tore off the flesh, 
but raked into their very bowels.” Such is the description 
given by one of those who thus endured to the end.t The 
strong language in the Epistle to the Hebrews is eminently 
applicable. Some “ were tortured, not accepting deliverance; 
others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, more- 
over of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they 
were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: 
they wandered about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins ; being 
destitute, afflicted, tormented: they wandered in deserts, and 
in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”} 
Christians were often the victims of popular fury, as well 
as of public edicts and imperial authority. Every odious 


* Lardner, iv. 300. t Cyprian. | - t Heb. xi. 35—38. 


LECTURE IX. 267 


slander was propagated against them for the purpose of 
instigating the rage of the populace. 'The evidence of abject 
slaves or of persons forced by torture to testify as an in- 
censed community desired, was used to justify the most 
dreadful explosions of vulgar hate. Dida drought occur? It 
was a proverbial explanation, that “if God refused rain, the 
Christians were in fault.” Did the Nile refuse its annual 
irrigation, or the Tiber overflow its banks? Did earth- 
quake, or famine, or any other public calamity, excite the 
popular mind? A ready cause was in every. mouth; the 
anger of the gods on account of the increase of christianity ! 
A ready sacrifice to propitiate the offended deities was imme- 
diately resorted to; the slaughter of the Christians! How 
the better informed of society endeavoured to stimulate the 
mob to these hecatombs of innocent victims, may be judged 
from the fact, that “ Porphyry, a man who wished to be 
accounted a philosopher, found a cause for the inveteracy of 
an infectious and desolating sickness in this, that Esculapius 
could not exert any effectual influence on the earth in 
consequence of the prevalence of christianity.”* 

Such, then, were the obstacles which opposed the propaga- 
tion of the gospel. Who, in their anticipation, must not 
have said : “If this cause be of man, it must come to naught?” 
Either it must die a natural death in the obscurity of its 
birth, or be torn to pieces at the first onset of its foes, or else 
it must be of God,—protected and advanced by His power. 

Before proceeding to speak of the success of the apostles, 
we may deduce, from the premises we have established, a 
conclusive proof of the power by which they acted. 

It is certain that they understood the difficulties, and anti- 
cipated the dangers, of their work. As men of ordinary 
understanding, they must have foreseen, while, by the pre- 
dictions of Christ, they were distinctly apprized of, the obsta- 
cles and perils they would encounter. Nevertheless, with a 
perfect knowledge of their own weakness, they undertook 


* Neander’s Ch. Hist. 


268 LECTURE IX. 


to propagate the gospel among all nations. Why? What 
was there in reproach and beggary, in racks and prisons, in 
wild beasts and flames, so inviting? Must they not have 
been sincere in their professions? Could any thing short of 
a thorough belief that Jesus was risen, and had promised to 
be with them in all their labours, have induced them to 
undertake such an enterprise? It is impossible, without 
ridiculous absurdity, to question their entire persuasion of 
this. But is this a proof that Jesus was risen, and that, in 
divine power, he was with them? We do not pretend that, 
in general, the fact of the advocates of a doctrine being con- 
vinced, is valid evidence, of its truth. But in the case of the 
apostles it should be thus regarded, inasmuch as they could 
not have been deceived. Whether Jesus wrought genuine 
miracles or not; whether he had appeared to them “at sundry 
times and in divers manners” after his burial ; whether he 
had eaten with them, conversed with them, journeyed with 
them, during the space of forty days subsequent to his death ; 
whether they heard and saw him, at the end of those days, 
solemnly give them their charge to propagate the gospel, and 
the promise of his presence and power wherever they should 
go; they musi have known. Consequently, when, with such 
undeniable knowledge and unquestionable sincerity, they 
went into all the world preaching Jesus and the resurrection, 
neither deceived nor wishing to deceive, the evidence was 
perfect that they laboured in the service of truth; that their 
faith stood not “in the wisdom of men, but in the power 
of God.” 

II. Let us now consider THE sUCCESS OF THE APOSTLES 
IN EXECUTING THEIR Mastrer’s cuarce. On the fiftieth 
day after his death they commenced. Beginning in Jerusa- 
lem, the very furnace of persecution, they first set up their 
banner in the midst of those who had been first in the cruci- 
fixion of Jesus, and were all elate with the triumph of that 
tragedy. No assemblage could have been more possessed of 
dispositions perfectly at war with their message, than that to 


eS eee eee 


LECTURE IX. 269 


which they made their first address. And what was the 
tenor of the address? “Jesus of Nazareth (said Peter), 
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknow- 
ledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have 
crucified and slain; whom God hath raised up. Therefore 
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath 
made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord 
and Christ.” One would have supposed that the same hands 
that had rioted in the blood of his Master, would now have 
wreaked their enmity in that of this daring and, to all human 
view, most impolitic apostle. But what ensued? Three 
thousand souls were that day added to the infant church.* 
In a few days the number was increased to Jive thousand ;* 
and in the space of about a year and a half, though the gos- 
pel was preached only in Jerusalem and its vicinity, “multi- 
tudes, both of men and women,” and “a great company of 
the priests, were obedient to the faith,’t Now, the converts 
being driven, by a fierce persecution, from Jerusalem, “went 
every where preaching the word ;” and in less than three 
years churches were gathered “throughout all Judea, Galilee, 
and Samaria, and were multiplied.”§ About two years after 
this, or seven from the beginning of the work, the gospel was 
first preached to the Gentiles ; and such was the success, that 
before thirty years had elapsed from the death of Christ, his 
church had spread throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria ; 
through almost all the numerous districts of the lesser Asia ; 
through Greece and the islands of the ASgean sea, the sea- 
coast of Africa, and even into Italy and Rome. The number 
of converts in the several cities, respectively, is described by 
the expressions, “a great number,’ “great multitudes,” 
“much people.” What an extensive impression had been 
made, is obvious from the outcry of the opposers at Thessa- 
lonica, “that they, who had turned the world upside down, 
were come hither also.” Demetrius, an enemy, complained 
of Paul that, “not only at Ephesus, but also throughout all 


Ea earn ean RNASE LLG Da OM ew ea Seas OY Ea Os 
* Acts, 11. 41. t Acts, iv. 4: + Acts, v.14; vi. 7. § Acts, viii. 4; ix, 13. 


270 LECTURE IX. 


Asia, he had persuaded and turned away much people.”* 
In the mean while, Jerusalem, the chief seat of Jewish ran- 
cour, continued the metropolis of the gospel, having in it 
many tens of thousands of believers.t These accounts are 
taken from the book of the Acts of the Apostles; but as 
this book is almost confined to the labours of Paul and his 
immediate companions, saying very little of the other apos- 
tles, it is very certain that the view we have given of the 
propagation of the gospel, during the first thirty years, 1s 
very incomplete. In the thirtieth year after the beginning 
of the work, the terrible persecution under Nero kindled its 
fires; then Christians had become so numerous at Rome, 
that, by the testimony of Tacitus, “a great multitude” were 
seized. In forty years more, as we are told in a celebrated 
letter from Pliny, the Roman governor of Pontus and Bythi- 
nia, christianity had long subsisted in these provinces, though 
so remote from Judea. “Many of all ages, and of every 
rank, of both sexes likewise,” were accused to Pliny of being 
Christians. What he calls “the contagion of this superstition” 
(thus forcibly describing the irresistible and rapid spread of 
christianity), had “seized not cities only, but the less towns 
also, and the open country,” so that the heathen temples 
“were almost forsaken,” few victims were purchased for 
sacrifice, and “a long intermission of the sacred solemnities 
had taken place.”{ Justin Martyr, who wrote about thirty 
years after Pliny, and one hundred after the gospel was first 
preached to the Gentiles, thus describes the extent of chris- 
tianity in his time: “There is not a nation, either Greek or 
barbarian, or of any other name, even of those who wander 
in tribes and live in tents, among whom prayers and thanks- 
givings are not offered to the Father and Creator of the 
universe by the name of the crucified Jesus.” Clemens Alex- 
andrinus, a few years after, thus writes: “ The philosophers 
were confined to Greece, and to their particular retainers ; 


* See Paley’s Evidences. + Acts, xxi. 20. “ Tlocat prpcades.” 
+ Lardner, iv. 13—15. 


satan i i = 


‘ 271 


but the doctrine of the Master of christianity did not remain 
in Judea, but is spread throughout the whole world, in every 
nation, and village, and city, converting both whole houses 
and separate individuals, having already brought over to the 
truth not a few of the philosophers themselves. If the Greek 
philosophy be prohibited, it immediately vanishes ; whereas, 
from the first preaching of our doctrine, kings and tyrants, 
governors and presidents, with their whole train and with 
the populace on their side, have endeavoured, with their 
whole might, to exterminate it, yet doth it flourish more 
and more.” ! 
There is no reason for diminishing the wonder which this 
rapid success of the gospel so necessarily excites, by the 
supposition that all these conversions, or the greater part of 
them, were little more than a change of profession and 
name; the substitution of a christian church, for a heathen 
temple—a mere transition from one system of religious 
ceremonial to another. In times of fierce persecution the 
reality of a conversion is tried “as by fire.” There was 
little during the first three hundred years of christianity to 
encourage a profession of its faith, except so far as the 
heart had become sufficiently devoted to its holy and self- 
denying duties, to be willing to suffer on their account the 
oss of all things. Mere cold assent and dead formality 
were not likely to put themselves in the way of being torn 
by wild beasts, or buriedin the mines. ‘The change wrought 
in the converts was, for the most part and notoriously, a 
change of heart and of life, as well as an entire change of 
opinion. The striking alteration in those who embraced the 
gospel, bore a powerful attestation to its divine authority. 
Philosophers complained that men improved but little, in 
goodness, under their instructions ; while Paul could say to 
the Christians of Corinth, a city famous for the profligacy of 
its inhabitants, “ Such were some of you? but ye are washed, 
ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” “The doctrine of 


LECTURE IX. 


272 LECTURE IX. 


Christ,” says a writer of those times, “did convert the most 
wicked persons who embraced it from all their debaucheries, 
to the practice of all virtues.”* So remarkable was the 
difference between the Christians and those whom they had 
once resembled, that Origen, defending their faith against the 
attacks of Ceisus, challenges a comparison between their 
moral character and that of any other societies in the world. 
Even the sceptic Gibbon unites in this testimony. Speaking 
of these early converts, he says: “ As they emerged from sin 
and superstition to the glorious hope of immortality, they 
resolved to devote themselves to a life not only of virtue, 
but of penitence. The desire of perfection became the 
ruling passion of their soul.” “Their serious and sequestered 
life, averse to the gay luxury of the age, inured them to 
chastity, temperance, economy, and all the sober and domes- 
tic virtues. The contempt of the world exercised them in 
the habits of humility, meekness, and patience. ‘The more 
they were persecuted, the more closely they adhered to each 
other. Their mutual charity and unsuspecting confidence 
has been remarked by infidels, and was too often abused by 
perfidious friends. Even their faults, or rather their errors, 
were derived from an excess of virtue.”t From: all these 
authorities, it is evident that the propagation of the gospel 
was not only of great rapidity, but of great power in trans- 
forming the hearts and lives of the multitudes who em- 
braced it. 

In connexion with the moral power and vast extent of 
this work ; it should be considered, that among those who 
were brought to the obedience of Christ, were men of all 
classes, from the most obscure and ignorant, to the most 
elevated and learned. Inthe New Testament, we read of an 
eminent counsellor, and of a chief ruler, and of a great 
company of priests, and of two centurions of the Roman 
army, and of a proconsul of Cyprus, and of a member of 
theAreopagus at Athens, and even of certain of the house- 


* Origen cont. Celsum. + Gibbon, il. xv. 138—9. 


LECTURE IX. 273 


hold of the emperor Nero, as having been converted to the 
faith. Many of the converts were highly esteemed for talents 
and attainments. Such was Justin Martyr, who, while a 
heathen, was conversant with all the schools of philosophy. 
Such was Panteenus, who, before his conversion, was a 
philosopher of the school of the Stoics, and whose instruc- 
tions in human learning at Alexandria, after he became a 
Christian, were much frequented by students of various 
characters. Such also was Origen, whose reputation for 
learning was so great, that not only Christians, but philoso- 
phers flocked to his lectures upon mathematicsand philosophy, 
as well as on the scriptures. Even the noted Porphyry did 
not refrain from a high eulogium upon the learning of 
Origen.* It may help to convey some notion of the charac- 
ter and quality of many early Christians ; of their learning 
and their labours; to notice the christian writers who 
flourished in these ages. St. Jerome’s catalogue contains one 
hundred and twenty writers previous to the year 360 from 
the death of Christ. The catalogue is thus introduced: 
“ Let those who say the church has had no philosophers, nor 
eloquent and learned men, observe who and what they were 
who founded, established, and adorned it.”t Pliny, in his 
celebrated letter to Trajan, written about sixty-three years 
after the gospel began to be preached to the Gentiles, expressly 
states that, in the provinces of Pontus and Bythinia, many 
of all ranks were accused to him of the crime of being 
Christians.t 


* Stillingfleet’s Orig. Sac. 273-4. _ t See Paley, 346. 

t The early advocates of christianity, in controversy with the heathen of 
Greece and Rome, were accustomed to dwell with great stress upon the argu- 
ment from its propagation. Chrysostom, of the fourth century, writes: 
“The apostles of Christ were twelve, and they gained the whole world.” | 
“Zeno, Plato, Socrates, and many others, endeavoured to introduce a new 
course of life, but in vain; whereas Jesus Christ not only taught, but settled 
anew polity, or way of living, all over the world.” “The doctrines and 
writings of fishermen, who were beaten and driven from society, and always 
lived in the midst of dangers, have been readily embraced by learned aad 
unlearned, bondmen and free, nice soldiers, Greeks and barbarians.’ 

he 


274 LECTURE IX. 


We have now prepared the several facts that constitute the 
materials of our argument. Here is an unquestionable his- 
torical event.—'The rapid and extensive spread of christianity 
over the whole Roman empire in less than seventy years 
from the outset of its preaching. Has any thing else of a 
like kind been known in the world? Did the learning and 
popularity of the ancient philosophers, powerfully aided by 
the favour of the great, and the peculiar character of the 
age, accomplish any thing in the least resembling the success 
of the apostles? It is a notorious fact that only one of them 
“ever dared to attack the base religion of the nation, and 
substitute better representations of God in its stead, although 
its absurdity was apparent to many of them. An attempt 
of this kind, having cost the bold Socrates his life, no others 
had resolution enough to offer such a sacrifice for the general 
good. ‘To excuse their timidity in this respect, and give it 
the appearance of profound wisdom, they called to their aid 
the general principle that it is imprudent and injurious to 
let people see the whole truth at once ; that it is not only 
necessary to spare sacred prejudices, but, ‘in particular cir- 
cumstances, an act of benevolence to deceive the great mass 
of the people. This was the unanimous opinion of almost 
all the ancient philosophical schools.” No further proof is 
needed that such men were incapable of effecting any thing 
approximating to the great moral revolution produced in the 
Pata? SC Ane Bt BA gui ho) Pee Ge 
“Though kings, and tyrants, and people strove to extinguish the spark of 
faith, such a flame of true religion arose as filled the whole world. If you go 
to India, and Scythia, and the utmost ends of the earth, you will every where 
find the doctrine of Christ enlightening the souls of men.” Augustine, of the 
same century, speaking of the heathen philosophers, says: ‘“‘ Tf they were to 
live again, and should see the churches crowded, the temples forsaken, and 
men called from the love of temporal, fleeting things to the hope of eternal 
life and the possession of spiritual and heavenly blessings, and readily 
embracing them, provided they were really such as they are said to have been, 
perhaps they would say: ‘ These are things which we did not dare to say to 


the people ; we rather gave way to their custom than endeavoured to draw them 
over to our best thoughts and apprehensions,’ ” 


Lardner, ii. 614 and 597. 
* Reinhard’s Plan, p. 165, 6. 


——————————— se ee 


LECTURE VIII. 275 


world by the power of the gospel. How different the apos- 
tles! boldly attacking all vice, superstition, and error, at all 
hazards, in all places, not counting their lives dear unto 
them, so that they might “testify the gospel of the grace of 
God.” But where else shall we turn for a parallel to the 
work we have described? What efforts, independently of 
the gospel, were ever successful in the moral regeneration of 
whole communities of the superstitious and licentious ? 

The only event in the annals of time that has ever been 
supposed to bear any resemblance to the propagation of 
christianity, is the rapid progress of Mohammedanism. But 
a little reflection will show you that the single fact of its 
rapid and extensive progress is the only point of resemblance ; 
while, in every thing else, there is direct opposition. The 
Koran based its cause upon no profession of miracles, and 
therefore had no detection to fear. The gospel rested all 
upon its repeated miracles, and, consequently, unless it had 
been true, would have been certain of detection. Moham- 
med was of the most powerful and honourable family in 
Mecca, the chief city of his nation ; and though not rich by 
inheritance, became so by marriage. Jesus was of a family 
of poor and unknown inhabitants of an obscure village in 
Judea, and had not where to lay his head. Mohammed 
began his work among the rich and great. His first three 
years were consumed in attaching to his cause thirteen of the 
chief people of Mecca. Jesus commenced among the poor. 
During his three years of ministry on earth, twelve obscure 
Jews, many of them fishermen, all unlearned and powerless, 
were his chosen disciples. Of the first thirteen apostles of 
the Koran, all ultimately attained to riches and honours, to 
the command of armies, and the government of kingdoms. 
Of the twelve apostles who commenced the propagation of 
the gospel, all attained to the utmost poverty, contempt, and 
ignominy ; and all, but one, to a violent death on account 
of their cause. The age, when Mohammed set up his ban- 
ner, was eminently propitious to his enterprise. “Nothing 


276 LECTURE IX. 


can equal the ignorance and darkness that reigned in this 
century.”* Science, philosophy, and theology, had every 
where declined into almost nothingness. 'The age when the 
apostles of Christ began their work was eminently unpro- 
pitious to any cause but that of God. Jt was the Augus- 
tan age. Mohammedanism took its rise in an interior town 
of Arabia, among a barbarous people, and its first conquests 
were among the rudest and least enlightened of the most 
ignorant regions of the world. Christianity arose in the 
splendid metropolis of a populous and intelligent nation, and 
achieved her earliest victories in some of the most polished 
and enlightened cities of the world. In the town of Mecca, 
where Mohammed opened his mission, there was no estab- 
lished religion to contend with. In the city of Jerusalem, 
where Jesus and his apostles began their work of love, 
an established religion was powerfully fortified within the 
triple wall of priest, magistrate, and people, and defended 
by all the powers and passions of the nation. When 
the prophet of Arabia appeared, his cause was favoured 
by the feuds that prevailed among the Arab tribes around 
him, and by the bitter dissensions and cruel animosities then 
reigning among various sects of degenerate Christians ; dis- 
sensions that filled the greater part of the east with such 
enormities as rendered the very name of christianity odious 
tomany. When the great Prophet of christianity appeared, 
the temple of Janus was shut, in token of universal peace, 
so that all the schools of philosophy, all sects of superstition, 
and all the powers and animosities of the nations were free 
to combine against his gospel. Mohammed attempted to 
conciliate the prevailing religion of the empire, by preaching 
to the ignorant generation of Christians that his religion was 
no other than what had been originally their own. The 
unity of God, the prophetic character of the patriarchs and 
prophets of the Old Testament, and the divine mission of 
Jesus, he carefully and artfully asserted; pretending to restore 


* Mosheim. 


LECTURE IX. 277 


the purity, instead of attacking the foundations, of the reli- 
gion they had taught. This was politic. The apostles, on 
the other hand, attacked, boldly, and unsparingly, the religion 
of all the world. While asserting the essential principles of 
the religion of Moses, they aimed directly at the subversion 
of its, then, degenerate institutions; and, as to all Gentile 
nations, pretended to nothing but uncompromising opposi- 
tion. This certainly was any thing but politic. Moham- 
med, while he required nothing of his followers that called 
for self-denial,* expressly sanctioned and promoted their 
strongest passions. Impurity, revenge, ambition, pride, were 
his cardinal and honoured indulgences. . Thus he enticed 
human nature. I need not say that the requisitions and 
allurements proclaimed by the apostles of Christ were pre- 
cisely the contrary. But thus they repelled human nature. 
Even, with all these advantages in his favour, Mohammed, 
at the end of the first twelve years of his enterprise, had not 
extended his cause beyond the walls of Mecca, and had 
gained but few disciples within them, because his efforts had 
been confined to persuasion. While christianity with all its 
disadvantages, in half the time from the beginning of the 
ministry of Christ, could number more than ten thousand 
disciples in Jerusalem, and churches throughout all Judea, 
and Galilee, and Samaria; and yet her efforts were also con- 
fined to persuasion. But Mohammed, after twelve years 
experience, discovered that, even with all his indulgence to 
passion and pride, some argument much more cogent than 
that of persuasion was necessary to convince the nations. 
This was found at the edge of the sword. He sounded the 
trump of war; promised the spoils of nations, the fairest of 
the captives, and the mdst luxurious arbour in Paradise, to 
those who would join his standard. ‘Then, proselytes were 
multiplied. The roving Arabs, converted to the faith for the 


* The prohibition of wine, the fast of Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to 
Mecca, were no part of Mohammedanism until several years after its com- 
mencement, when military successes had completely established its authority. 

23* 


278 LECTURE IX. 


sake of the plunder, flocked to his cause. Death or conversion 
was the only choice of the idolater. ‘“'The Koran, the tri- 
bute, or the sword,” was vouchsafed to Jews and Christians. 
Henceforward the demon of Mohammedanism was always 
seated on the hilt of the sword, and made its way by force 
and slaughter. How and why, it prevailed both rapidly and 
extensively from this time, Iam as little bound to explain, as 
to account for the martial prowess of Napoleon, or of the 
Goths and Vandals. It was the success of the warrior, not 
of the prophet. 

But I may not leave this subject, without turning what to 
some may have seemed almost parallel to the success of the 
gospel, into an auxiliary illustration of its superhuman power. 
It is a strong fact, in evidence that God was on the side of the 
apostles, that when they had every thing on earth to contend 
with, they succeeded, by mere efforts of persuasion, in sub- 
duing kingdoms, and bringing innumerable multitudes to 
holiness of life; while Mohammed and his apostles, in the 
most favourable circumstances, were confined, as long as 
they used no weapon but that of persuasion, to a few follow- 
ers, and, had they never taken the sword, would probably 
never have been heard of beyond the sands of Arabia. 

But should it still be contended that the success of the 
apostles may be accounted for without reference to super- 
natural aid; let the question be answered why, when the 
same human means have since been employed in so many 
instances, nothing even approximating to the same results 
has ever ensued. Jews are found at present as numerous as 
ever. Some of the strongest obstacles which opposed the 
success of the gospel among them, in the apostolic age, do not 
now exist. ‘They have no religiol& establishment ; no regu- 
lar priesthood ; no power to persecute. Christianity, on the 
other hand, is established. Instead of appearing to the Jew 
as a thing of yesterday, advocated but by a few obscure men, 
as she did of old; she now presents herself under the sane- 
tion of eighteen centuries, illustrated by the learning of her 


LECTURE IX. 279 


disciples, professed by all civilized nations. It cannot be said 
that less human effort, in the aggregate, has been employed 
for the conversion of the Jews, than was used by the twelve 
apostles. Much more money has been expended; much 
more learning has been devoted; much more human power 
has been exerted; many more individuals have been em- 
ployed. The same gospel has been preached. ‘The same 
arguments have been urged. And why should not corre- 
sponding effects appear? “There is reason to think that 
there were more Jews converted by the apostles in one day, 
than have since been won over in the last thousand years.”* 
The simple explanation is and must be, that the great power 
of God was with the apostles for the establishment of the 
truth, in a degree far greater than that in which it is now 
vouchsafed to his ministers in promoting the wide extension 
of the truth. 

From the Jews turn to the heathens. There is no reason 
to believe that the heathenism of the present day is any more 
opposed to the propagation of christianity, than that of the 
world in the age of the apostles. Instead of twelve, there are 
hundreds of labourers in this field—men of education, talent, 
indefatigable zeal, undaunted devotion. The art of printing 
has furnished them with facilities of which the apostles, un- 
less it be conceded that they possessed the miraculous gift of 
tongues, were entirely destitute. The scriptures are now 
circulated in full; while in the days of St. Paul, the canon 
being incomplete, they were circulated only in parts. In 
addition to all this, christianity is recommended among many 
heathen nations, by the political importance of the countries 
from which its preachers have gone, and in some, by the 
actual co-operation of chfistian powers ruling in the midst of 
pagan institutions. With these important advantages; what 
is the success of present efforts among the heathen? Enough, 
indeed, to reward all the zeal expended in their support; 

nough to show that still the power of God is with the gospel, 


-~—— 


* Bryant on the Truth of Christianity. 


280 LECTURE IX. 


and that ample encouragement is given for all the increase 
of effort which Christians can ever bestow on the heathen ; 
but nothing comparable with the success of the apostles. Paul 
was instrumental in converting more heathens, in thirty years, 
than all modern missionaries in the last five hundred. Ex- 
plain this fact! It is absurd to attempt it, in view of all the 
circumstances of the case, except you admit the solution 
given by Paul himself—*T have planted, and Apollos water- 
ed; but God gave the increase.” Without this grand truth, 
“ God gave the increase ;” christianity would have perished 
on the cross of its founder. 

I have now set before you a miracle, the evidence of which 
no eye can be too blind to see: Christianity universally 
propagated ; and yet propagated by no earthly influence but 
that of the apostles. This is the miracle. It is as directly 
contrary to the laws of nature and to universal experience, 
as if, at the word of man, the desert of Arabia should bud 
and blossom like a fruitful garden, or the sepulchre give up 
its dead. As long as this one fact, the propagation of chris- 
tianity, shall remain; the gospel will be supported by a 
pillar of evidence which infidels can only remove by taking 
away the foundation of all inductive evidence, and bringing 
down the whole temple of human knowledge to their own 
destruction. 

Now, in conclusion, let us see what an unbeliever must 
believe in consistency with his profession. He must believe 
that the apostles were either such weak-minded men as to 
imagine that their crucified Master had been with them, from 
time to time, during forty days after his burial, had conversed 
with them, and eaten with them, and that they had every 
sensible evidence of his resurrection, while in truth he had 
not been near them, but was still in his sepulchre; or else 
that they were so wicked and deceitful as to go all over the 
world preaching that he was risen from the dead, when they 
knew it was a gross fabrication. Suppose the unbeliever to 
choose the latter of these alternatives. Then he believes, not 


LECTURE IX. 281 


only that those men were so singularly attached to this un- 
truth as to give themselves up to all manner of disgrace, and 
persecution, and labour, for the sake of making all the world 
believe it, knowing that their own destruction could be the 
only consequence ; but also, what is still more singular, that 
when they plunged, immediately at the outset of their ministry, 
into an immense multitude of those who, having lately cruci- 
fied the Saviour, were full of enmity to his disciples; they 
succeeded, without learning, eloquence, power, or a single 
conceivable motive, in making three thousand of them be- 
lieve that he, whom they had seen on the cross, was indeed. 
alive again; and believe it so fully, as to renounce every thing, 
and be willing to suffer any thing, for the sake of it, and this 
on the very spot where the guards that had kept the sepulchres 
were at hand to tell what was become of the body of Jesus. 
He must believe, moreover, that although in attempting to 
propagate a new religion to the exclusion of every other, they 
were undertaking what was entirely new, and opposed to the 
views of all nations; although the doctrines they preached 
were resisted by all the influence of the several priesthoods ; 
all the power of the several governments; all the passions, 
habits, and prejudices of the people; and all the wit and pride 
of the philosophers ofall nations; although the age was such as 
insured to their fabrications the most intelligent examination, 
with the strongest possible disposition to detect them; although, 
in themselves, these infatuated men were directly the reverse 
of what such resistance demanded, and, when they com- 
menced, were surrounded by circumstances of the most de- 
pressing kind, and by opposers specially exulting in the confi- 
dence of their susaibona © ; although the mode they adopted 
was of all others most caldMated to expose their own weakness 
and dishonesty, and to imbitter the enmity and increase the 
contempt of their opposers, so that they encountered every 
where the most tremendous persecutions, till torture and death 
were almost synonymous with the name of Christian; al- 
though they had nothing to propose, to Jew or Gentile, as a 


282 LECTURE IX. 


matter of faith, but what the wisdom of the world ridiculed, 
and the vice of the world hated, and all men were united in 
despising ; although they had nothing earthly with which to 
tempt any one to receive their fabrication, except the necessity 
of an entire change in all his habits and dispositions, and an 
assurance that tribulations and persecutions must be his por- 
tion: Yet when philosophers, with all their learning, and rank, 
and subtlety, and veneration, could produce no effect on the 
public mind, these obscure Galileans obtained such influence, 
throughout the whole extent of the Roman empire, and espe- 
cially in the most enlightened cities, that, in thirty years, what 
they themselves (by the supposition) did not believe, they made 
hundreds of thousands of all classes, philosophers, senators, 


governors, priests, soldiers, as well as plebeians, believe, and 


maintain unto death ; yea, they planted this doctrine of their 
own invention so deeply that all the persecutions of three hun- 
dred years could not root it up; they established the gospel so 
permanently that in three hundred years it was the established 
religion of an empire co-extensive with the known world, and 
continues still the religion of all civilized nations. ‘This, says 
the unbeliever, they did simply by their own wit and in- 
dustry; and yet, he well knows that, preachers of the gospel, 
with incomparably more learning, with equal industry, in far 
greater numbers, and in circumstances immeasurably more 
propitious, have attempted to do something of the same kind 
among heathen nations, and could never even approximate 
to their success. Still the apostles had no help but that of 
their own ingenuity and diligence! Such is the belief of 
the unbeliever. 'To escape acknowledging that the apostles 
were aided by miraculous assistance, he makes them to have 
possessed in themselves miraculous ability. To get rid of 
one miracle in the work, he has to make twelve miracles 
out of the twelve agents of the work. 'The Christian takes 
a far different course. “Paul planted, Apollos watered, but 
God gave the increase.” The weapons of their warfare 
were now carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling 


LECTURE IX. 283 


down of strong holds. To which solution, philosophy or 
common sense would award the prize of rational decision, it 
is easy to determine. 

The argument from the propagation of christianity is not 
yet complete. Satisfactory already, it is yet to receive an 
immense accession of strength. “The wilderness and the 
solitary place,” the immense regions of Pagan and Moham- 
medan desolation, shall yet be glad for the blessings of the 
gospel, and “the desert rejoice and blossom’ as the rose.” 
Every nation and kindred shall be brought “into captivity 
to the obedience of Christ,” for the word hath gone forth out 
of the mouth of the Lord: “I will give thee the heathen for 
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
thy possession.” How should every heart respond Amen ! 
and pray: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, 
as itis in heaven !” 


284 LECTURE X. 


LECTURE X. 


THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 


In our preceding lectures, we have followed the currents 
of three independent arguments, each of which was found 
sufficient to conduct us to a complete proof of the divine 
authority of the gospel of Christ. That, to which we now 
proceed, is especially capable of being “known and read of 
all men,” and deserves to be ranked in the highest class of 
‘the evidences of christianity. Our blessed Lord, speaking 
of false pretenders to divine revelation, delivered the follow- 
ing rule, by which they might be distinguished: “Ye shall 
know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of 
thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bring- 
eth forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil 
Sruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” This 
is a test universally approved of, and necessarily employed. 
Its influence on our judgment is unavoidable; and when 
properly applied, its results are certain. The goodness of a 
tree cannot be doubted, while we know the excellence of its 
fruit. No more,reason have we to question the holy charac- 
ter and divine origin of religion, while its legitimate effects 
on the lives and hearts of its genuine disciples are holy. 
We may come to an erroneous conclusion by judging erro- 
neously of the fruit; by ascribing effects to causes which did 
not produce them; by charging upon religion a train of 
consequences of which it was only the incidental occasion, 
instead of the natural cause. But these are errors in the 
application, and independent of the correctness of the test. 
Whenever you have ascertained the true results of any sys- 
tem of doctrine, you have found a plain and certain expres- 
sion of its intrinsic character. It is good in proportion as 


—_—— ee 


LECTURE X. 285 


the fruit is good. If its fruit be godly, it must itself be 
of God. 

Let infidelity be always tried by this equitable rule, so as 
to receive the full credit of all the evils which may easily be 
found to have grown upon its branches ; let it be stripped of 
all those adventitious circumstances of a favourable kind for 
which it is indebted to the surrounding influence of chris- 
tianity ; and few eyes will fail to see that the root is one of 
bitterness, and the tree fit only to be cut down as a cumberer 
of the ground. If men would judge christianity also, by 
the fair application of this rule, carefully separating from 
her genuine productions all those of which, however enemies 
may love to lay them to her charge, she is only the innocent 
occasion ; it would require but little discernment to be con- 
vinced of her heavenly origin, and of the duty of all to 
spread the knowledge and acceptance of her divine revela- 
tion. Such will be the object of the present lecture. Chris- 
tianity may be known by its fruits. Christians are desirous 
that their faith should be judged by this test, as well as by 
every other that is just and equal. We set out, therefore, 
with this question: What are the fruits of Christianity ? 
In the examination of this subject, we will consider, 

J. THE EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY ON SOCIETY IN 
GENERAL. 

Il. Irs EFFECTS ON THE CHARACTER AND HAPPINESS 
OF GENUINE DISCIPLES. 

Reserving the latter of these divisions for another lec- 
ture, we devote our attention at present exclusively to the 
former. 

In proceeding to illustrate the beneficial effects of chris- 
tianity on society in general, 1 know of no way so direct as 
to consider in what condition the countries now blessed with 
its influence would have remained, had they been left to the 
several forms of religion under which they had previously 
subsisted. Let us take a brief survey of the moral state of 


the ancient world in the age when the preaching of the cross 
24 


286 LECTURE X. 


effected its wonderful revolution in the whole fabric of soci- 
ety. And that we may not be accused of unfairness, let us 
take into view, not the more distant and uncivilized pro- 
vinces, but those chief central states, where all the light and 
moral vigour of the heathen world were concentrated. Let 
our survey be confined to the society of Italy and Greece, 
where philosophy held her court, and literature and the arts 
were cultivated with the utmost devotion and success. Un- 
fortunately for the interests of truth, the history of Greece 
and Rome has fallen, for the most part, into the hands of 
writers much more concerned with their intellectual and 
martial prowess, than their moral attainments and social 
virtues ; so that while the reader is occupied in admiring the 
acuteness of their schoolmen, the taste of their poets, the 
perfection of their arts, and the warlike character of their 
soldiery, he is seldom called to look within the enclosures of 
society, and inquire how they lived, what manner of men 
they were in their families, in their social relations, in their 
moral principles, and their private habits. 

A certain eminent writer, who lived in the age to which 
we refer, addressing the people of Rome, describes the heathen 
population of the civilized world as given up to the vilest, 
most unnatural, and beastly affections ; filled with all unrigh- 
teousness and degrading wickedness ; full of envy, murder, 
deceit, malignity ; disobedient to parents ; covenant-breakers, 
without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, not only 
committing such things as were worthy of death, but having 
pleasure in them that did them. Such, according to St. 
Paul, were the polished Grecians and the sterner Romans.* 

Ist. Consider their religion. “Professing themselves to 
be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the 


uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible - 


man, and to birds and four-footed beasts, and creeping 
things.”t Deities were multiplied till there was a god for 
every thing, and any thing answered fora god. Athens was 


* Rom. i. 29—32. t Rom. i. 22, 23. 


LECTURE X. 2BBT 


full of statues dedicated to different deities ; those of various 
countries being so crowded together, that it was said to be 
“easier to find a god than a man.” There was the god 
Caius Cesar, and the god Augustus Cesar, and the god Lu- 
cius Cesar, and the goddess Julia, the profligate daughter of 
Augustus, to whom the rulers of Athens ascribed the title of 
Providence. The senate of the Areopagus, and that of the 
six hundred, erected her statue, and enacted her divinity ; an 
altar having been consecrated many years before, to “the 
Unknown God.” Rome exceeded Athens in the number of 
her gods, only by having, as the mistress of the world, all 
nations to collect from, sea all forms of paganism to counte- 
nance. “The deities of a thousand groves and a thousand 
streams possessed, in peace, their local and respective influ- 
ence; nor could the Roman, who deprecated the wrath of 
the Tiber, deride the Egyptian who presented his offering to 
the beneficent genius of the Nile. Every virtue and even 
vice acquired its divine representative ; every art and pro- 
fession its patron, whose attributes in the most distant ages 
and countries, were uniformly derived from the character of 
their peculiar votaries. It was the custom (of the Romans) 
to tempt the protectors of besieged cities by the promise of 
more distinguished honours than they possessed in their 
native country. Rome gradually became the common tem- 
ple of her subjects, and the freedom of the city was bestowed 
on all the gods of mankind”* “In this mania for foreign 
gods, the nobles and the emperors themselves set the most 
corrupting examples. Germanicus and Agrippina devoted 
themselves especially to Egyptian gods. So also Vespasian. 
Nero served all gods with the exception of the Dea Syra. 
Marcus Aurelius eaused the priests of all foreign gods and 
nations to be assembled in order to implore aid for the Roman 
empire against the incursions of the Marcomanni. Commodus 
caused himself to be initiated into the mysteries of the Egyp- 
tian Isis and the Persian Mithras. Severus worshipped 


* Gibbon’s Dec, and Fall, i. 32, 35,36. 


288 LECTURE X. 


especially the Egyptian Serapis ; Caracalla chiefly the Egyp- 
tian Isis; and Heliogabalus the Syrian deities ; though he 
was desirous of becoming a priest of the Jewish, Samaritan, 
and Christian religions.”* 

The traditions of the principal divinities of the ancient 
heathen are a true guide to the vices of their worship. What 
the gods were said to have been in their lives, their worship- 
pers were actually in their service. “Itis ashame,” said one 
who knew them well, “even to speak of those things which 
were done of them in secret.” The chief oracles of the hea- 
thens appointed human sacrifices; so that not only the barba- 
rians, but even the Athenians, Lacedemonians, and Romans, 
were accustomed to worship idols in the blood of their fellow- 
creatures. What must have been the state of public morals 
when gods were patrons of vice, and their rites encouraged 
both cruelty and obsceneness, it is easier to imagine than de- 
scribe. ‘“ Eusebius is compelled to use language when de- 
scribing the height of wickedness and impurity which the 
worship of the heathens attained, such as no virtuous man’ 
can read without shuddering.” 'The gods were entreated, by 
costly offerings, on splendid altars, to favour the indulgence 
of unnatural lusts; the perpetration of murders ; the robbery 
of the orphan and the widow. Seneca exclaims: “How great 
is now the madness of men! ‘They lisp the most abomina- 
ble prayers in the ears of the gods. And if a man is found 
listening, they are silent. What a man ought not to hear, 
they do not blush to rehearse to God.”t Well might St. Paul 
describe them as “given up to uncleanness through the 
lusts of their own hearts.” 

2d. Consider the spirit of cruelty that reigned among those 
people. It was not solely owing to the madness and depravity 
of a Tiberius, a Caligula, a Nero, or a Caracalla, that a eruel 
and sanguinary spirit, in their day, was so universal. Had 
not the whole mass, the peasant, the soldier, the citizen, and 


* Prof. Tholuck on Heathenism.—Biblical Repository, 
t Epist. 10. + See Potter’s Antiquities, ii, 301. 


LECTURE X. 289 


the senator, as well as the prince, been foully tainted, the 
monstrous enormities of those vicious tyrants could never 
have been perpetrated. Such was the cruelty of Romans to 
their slaves, that it was not unusual to put the aged and use- 
less to perish on an island in the Tiber; and some masters 
would even drown them, as food for the inhabitants of their 
fish-ponds.* Scenes of blood and slaughter were the public 
diversions of the people. Witness the shows of gladiators in 
the crowded amphitheatre, when to celebrate a birth-day or 
gratify a popular whim, crowds of captives were set to mutual 
slaughter, or else to contend with the fury of wild beasts. 
What must have been the moral sensibility of those nations, 
of which the most refined females delighted in such revolting 
cruelties, criticising the skill of the ferocious swordsman, and 
exclaiming with enthusiasm at the graceful stroke that opened 
the heart of the vanqtished, and poured out his lifeblood 
upon the arena! + St. Paul describes the heathen community 
as full of murder and malignity. ume, speaking of “ the 
a RT NY VOOM OU PRR maT Poke Nee Wren eee eee 


* “The custom of exposing old, useless, or sick slaves on an island of the 
Tiber, there to starve, seems to have been pretty common in Rome; and 
whoever recovered after having been so exposed, had his liberty given him 
by an edict of the emperor Claudius.” “ The ergastula, or dungeons, where 
slaves in chains were forced to work, were very common all over Italy.” “A 
chained slave for a porter, was usual in Rome, as appears from Ovid and 
other authors.” The evidence of slaves “was always extorted by the most 
exquisite torments.”—Hwme on the Populousness of Ancient Natvons. 

+ “Who,” says Hume, “can read the accounts of the amphitheatrical en- 
tertainments without horror? or who is surprised that the emperors should 
treat people in the same way the people treated their inferiors? One’s hu- 
manity is apt to renew the barbarous wish of Caligula, that the people had 
but one neck. A man could almost be pleased, by a single blow to put an 
end to such arace of monsters.”—Note to Essay on the Populousness of Ancient 
Nations. 

How Cicero, “the mildest of all pagan philosophers and orators,” regarded 
with an inhuman approbation the cruelties above named, may be seen from 
his sayings, as quoted in Jortin’s Discourses concerning the truth of the 
Christian Religion. He states that the supplications of a poor wretch begging 
his life, on the arena, only made the spectators, as a matter of course, the more 
violent against him, and the more set upon his death. See the Oration for 


Milo. 
O4A* 


290 LECTURE X. 


most illustrious period of Roman history,” says that “at that 
time, the horrid practice of poisoning was so common, that 
during part of a season a pretor punished capitally for this 
crime above three thousand persons in a part of Italy, and 
found informations of this nature still multiplying upon him! 
So depraved in private life,’ adds the historian, “were that 
people whom in their history we so much admire.”* Murder 
was in common practice among all classes. “Such,” says 
Gibbon, “was the unhappy condition even of Roman empe- 
rors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was 
commonly the same; almost every reign is closed by the 
same disgusting repetition of treason and murder.” Suicide 
was not only extensively practised, but advocated as a right, 
and commended as virtuous. Seneca pleaded for it. Cicero 
was its advocate. Brutus, and Cassius, with many others, 
both defended and practised it. Cato is praised by Plutarch 
for having been his own murderer. These, in their day, 
were among the lights of the heathen world! What then, 
must have been the awful deeds of darkness among the more 
ignorant populace ! 

They were “without natural affection.” Nothing could 
exhibit, in a more appalling light, their utter annihilation of 
moral principle and natural affection, than the fact that “the 
exposition, that is, the murder of new born infants, was an 
allowed practice in almost all the states of Greece and Rome: 
even among the polite and civilized Athenians, the abandon- 
ing of one’s child to hunger or to wild beasts was regarded 
without blame or censure.”t “This practice,” says Hume, 
“was very common ; and is not spoken of by any author of 
those times with the horror it deserves, or scarcely even with 
disapprobation. Plutarch, the humane, good-natured Plutarch, 
mentions it as a merit in Attalus, king of Pergamus, that he 
murdered, or, if you will, exposed all his own children in 
order to leave his crown to the son of his brother, Eumenes. 
It was Solon, the most celebrated of the sages of Greece, that 


* Essay on Politics, + Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. 


LECTURE X. 291 


gave parents permission by law to kill their children.”* Phi- 
losopherssupported the custom by argument. Aristotle thought 
it should be encouraged by the magistrates. Plato maintained 
the same inhuman doctrine. It was complained of, asa great 
singularity, that the laws of Thebes forbade the practice. 
In all the provinces, and especially in Italy, the crime was 
daily perpetrated. From one end to the other of the Roman 
empire was stained with the blood of murdered infants. 
Think of the state of domestic virtue, when such was a 
prevailing inhumanity of parents; and the learned defended 
it as wise; the magistrate countenanced it as useful; and 
public sentiment regarded it as innocent! Such was the 
power of a father by the Roman law, that his adult children 
might be sent to the mines, sold into slavery, or destroyed 
at his will; his daughter could be compelled, at his discretion, 
to forsake a husband whom he himself had approved, while 
his wife could be dismissed at pleasure; and for certain 
crimes, some of them of a very trivial nature, might be put 
to death. The authority of the father was that of a despot. 
The subjection of his family was that of slaves. 

3d. But the Greeks and Romans were as notorious for their 
departure from the lowest grade of decency, as for their 
savage disruption of all the ties of natural affection. Sallust, 
speaking of the Roman youth in the time of Cicero, says: 
“Tuxury, avarice, and pride, enslaved them; they wantoned 
in rapine and prodigality; undervalued their own, and 
coveted what belonged to others; trampled on modesty, 
friendship, and continence ; confounded things divine and 
human, and threw off all manner of consideration and 
restraint.” “Men and women laid aside all regard to 
chastity.”"* Wecannot name the degrading crimes which in 
Greece were sanctioned by the public laws, and at Rome 
were practised, in the time of Seneca, without shame. It 
was considered a singular example in Athens, that the most 


* Hume on the Populousness of Ancient Nations. 
+ Rose’s Translation. 


292 LECTURE X. 


moral philosopher did not indulge in them. Even Cicero 
could speak, without any sign of disapprobation, of Cotta, 
an eminent Roman, as having owned an habitual addiction to 
the vileness we are alluding to, and as having quoted the 
authorities of ancient philosophers in its vindication. ‘There 
was no species of degrading crime which had not its 
attempted justification in the written doctrines, and its 
shameless perpetration in the avowed practices, of the wise 
men, and such as are usually supposed to have been the 
good men, of the most civilized nations of antiquity. 
Quinctilian, speaking of the philosophers of the first century 
of the Christian era, says: “'The most notorious vices are 
screened under that name; and they do not labour to main- 
tain the character of philosophers by virtue and study, but 
conceal the most vicious lives under an austere look and 
singularity of dress.”* Such, also, is the acknowledgment 
of Plutarch, with regard to the ancient” philosophers in 
general. While he owns that they were generally noted for 
a certain infamous vice which we cannot name; he excuses 
them by the plea that they improved their minds at the 
same time that they corrupted their bodies. Lucian and 
others unite in this representation. Neither Seneca, nor 
Xenophon, nor Plato, nor Aristotle, nor even Socrates, 
whose morals havé been extolled by infidels, as surpassing 
any thing in the Bible, is excepted from the revolting 
account of these writers. Granting that jealousy and 
calumny, among the ancients, included some of those illus- 
trious names under a charge so degrading; what must 
have been the character of the great mass of the philoso- 
phers, when calumny durst venture so far 2+ 

Such were the men whom our modern reformers would 
hold up to the public as patterns of virtue. “ They opposed 
each other,” says Voltaire, “in their dogmas; but in morality 
they were all agreed.” “There has been no philosopher, in 
all antiquity, who has not been desirous of making men 


* Quinctilian, Inst. Orat, t See M‘Knight on Rom. i. 26, 27. 


LECTURE X. 293 


better.” To the truth of the first assertion, we have no 
reason to object. In a sense directly opposite to that in 
which the writer intended it to be understood, they were 
indeed in morality all agreed. As to their unanimous 
desire of making men better, we can only say that they 
adopted the most singular means of effecting it. A Roman 
citizen, of the Augustan age, described them as those who, 
beings’ past feeling, had given themselves over unto lascivious- 
ness to work all uncleanness with greediness.* 
We have now exhibited some of the prominent features in 
the moral character of the society of Greece and Rome, in 
their most enlightened ages. From what has been stated, 
we may form a conception sufficiently accurate of the condi- 
tion of things in all those departments of morality on which 
depends whatever is important to personal, domestic, and 
public happiness. We have been speaking of the mnfost 
‘cultivated people of the ancient world. Unspeakably darker 
and more appalling would have been the picture, had we 
described the spirit, habits, and prevading crimes of any 
other pagan nations. But we are content that a fair repre- 


* Among the philosophers of the time of Cicero, the Cynics were held in 
great repute, and were widely spread throughout the Roman empire. The 
wise man of this school “gave up all human relations towards mankind ; 
contemned his country, his kindred, and the joys of wedded love, and sought 
his consolation in a self-complacent beastliness. One might see these beastly 
men half naked, moving about every where, with a great cudgel and a bread- 
bag, performing the animal necessities of their nature before the eyes of all; 
thrusting themselves, with extreme rudeness, among the multitudes, and there 
stepping forward as teachers of wisdom; not in a regular discourse, but with 
abrupt and broken Janguage of vulgar sport and derision.” And yet even the 
New Platonic philosophers greatly revered Cynicism, and represented 
Diogenes, its leader,as a godlike man. 

Whoever may desire a more extended account of ancient, classic heathen- 
ism, in regard to its gross superstition, its disgusting sensuality, its obscene 
idols and ceremonies, its human sacrifices, its legalized cruelties, the odious 
vices of those who conformed to it, and its utter impotency for all purposes 
of moral improvement, is referred to an article, already quoted, on the Nature 
and Influence of Heathenism, by Prof. Tholuck, of Halle, in Nos. vi, and 
vil. of the Biblical Repository, Andover. 


294A LECTURE X. 


sentation of the best, should also be received as a good 
likeness of the worst communities of ancient heathenism. 
We ask, what has become of all these deep rooted defor- 
mities? Look around upon the countries over which the 
influence of christianity has been exerted; those especially 
where the religion of Jesus has been enjoyed in the greatest 
purity, and cultivated with the truest devotion. Where are 
the remains of the abominations we have described! Crime 
remains indeed; but only in hidden dens. It shuns the 
light. Laws do not afford it countenance. Public sentiment 
drives it into concealment. What would the feeling of soci- 
ety now say to a show of gladiators ; to the legalized expo- 
sure of infants by the hands of mothers; to the public, deli- 
berate murder of worn out slaves; to the justification of 
suicide, and theft, and lying, and assassination, and the ac- 
knowledged practice of the most odious sensuality, by those 
who are looked up to as the moral teachers and examples of 
society? How would idolatry, with all its cruelties and 
obscenities; its profligate deities; its human sacrifices ; its 
hidden mysteries of iniquity; and its public ritual of vice, 
affect the public mind, were its temples, and images, and 
lascivious ceremonies now set up in our cities? It is not 
enough to say that in countries where all these abominations 
once rioted without restraint and in full sympathy with the 
public taste, they have long since been driven away with 
abhorrence. Positive blessings, in every form and for every 
class of society, have risen up in their place. A measure of 
virtue which would have singled out an ancient philosopher 
as a wonderful exception to the rest of the world, is absolutely 
necessary at present to a character of ordinary decency. 
Benevolence, such as was not known in Greece or Rome, and 
had it appeared, would not have been comprehended, is now 
a matter of common, daily intercourse between man and 
man. An incalculable improvement has been effected in all 
departments of human affairs, from the administration of 
national government down to the most retired relations of 


LECTURE X. 295 


the family circle. What rulers would have been remarkable 
once for not doing, the people would now expel them for 
attempting. A spirit of equity, moderation, and respect for 
the interests and happiness of the community, is required in 
the governments of countries under the influence of chris- 
tianity, which was hardly conceived of by the nations of 
antiquity, and, if it ever appeared, was a marvellous excep- 
tion to general rule. Laws, regenerated in their principles, 
are enacted in wisdom, and executed with a faithfulness’ 
unknown to the heathen. Instead of the despotic harshness 
with which a father was once permitted to rule his children 
and his wife, as his tools and slaves ; universal sentiment 
demands it, as necessary even to decency, that he shall be 
kind to them as his own flesh, and as the rightful sharers in 
all his comforts. Women have been elevated from the rank 
of beasts of burden, to an equal participation in all the 
refinements and blessings of society. The condition of the 
dependant classes of the community has been raised from 
that of contempt, and oppression, and utter ignorance, to a 
level, in point of natural right, with all; while education 
shines upon their dwellings, and religion seeks their souls, as 
worthy of all sacrifices which christian benevolence can 
make for their salvation. 

Efforts to provide for the sick, the destitute, the orphan, 
the widow, were unknown among the ancients. Rome, 
Athens, Corinth, contained no hospitals, no asylums, no pub- 
lic charities, no systems of gratuitous education. Such deeds 
of benevolence were impossible among a people who were 
accustomed to look upon all forms of human suffering with 
indifference, and to derive enthusiastic amusement from their 
promotion. In vain are the writings of their moralists 
examined for exhortations to any thing like an active con- 
cern for the poor or the ignorant. An orphan child was no 
object of public compassion in countries where orphans were 
daily and deliberately made, and left to perish by cold blooded 
abandonment on the part of their parents. 


296 LECTURE X. 


But what new sympathies sprung up immediately where 
the gospel prevailed! It was made the duty of the whole 
christian community to provide for the stranger, the poor, 
the sick, the aged, the widow, and the orphan. For this one 
object, public contributions, at the time of divine service, 
were established, and private donations were multiplied. 
How much such benevolence was insisted on, may be judged 
from a passage of Tertullian, where, speaking of the impedi- 
ments which a christian woman would encounter by mar- 
riage with a heathen, he says: “ What heathen will suffer 
his wife, in visiting the brethren to go from street to street, 
into strangers’, and even into the most miserable cottages ? 
Who will suffer them to steal into’ prisons, to kiss the chains 
of martyrs? Ifa stranger-brother comes, what reception 
will he find in a stranger’s house? If she has alms to bestow, 
the safe and the cellar are closed to her.” 

What the gospel effected, in promoting banemplenies and 
trampling down all the obstacles of selfishness and fear, 
when good was hardly to be done but at the cost of life, may 
be seen from the following representation of Dionysius, bishop 
of Alexandria, who had an opportunity of observing the 
contrast between heathens and Christians, when a terrible 
pestilence was raging in that city. “That pestilence appeared 
to the heathen as the most dreadful of all things, as that 
which left them no hope; not so, however, did it seem to 
us, but only a peculiar and practical trial. 'The greater part 
of our people, in the abundance of their brotherly love, did 
not spare themselves ; and mutually attending to each other, 
they would visit the sick without fear, and ministering to 
them for the sake of Christ, they would cheerfully give up 
their life with them. Many died, after their care had restored 
others from the disease to health. The best among our 
brethren, some priests and deacons, and some who were cele- 
brated among the laity, died in this manner, and such a 
death, the fruit of great piety and strong faith, is hardly infe- 
rior to martyrdom. Many who took the bodies of their 


LECTURE X. 297 


christian brethren into their hands and bosoms, closed their 
mouth and eyes, and buried them with every attention, soon 
followed them in death. But with the heathen, matters stood 
quite differently; at the first symptom of sickness, they drove 
a man from their society; they tore themselves away from 
their dearest connexions; they threw the half dead into the 
streets, and left the dead unburied ; endeavouring by all the 
' means in their power to escape contagion, which, notwith- 
standing all their contrivances, it was very difficult for them 
to accomplish.” 

“In the same manner,” writes Neander, from whose church 
history the above is taken, “the Christians of Carthage let 
the light of their love and christian conduct shine before the 
heathen in a pestilence which visited North Africa a little 
before, in the reign of Gallus. 'The heathen, out of cowardice, 
left the sick and the dying; the streets were full of corpses, 
which no man dared to bury; and avarice was the only 
passion which mastered the fear of death; for wicked men 
endeavoured to make a gain out of the misfortunes of their 
neighbours ; and the heathen accused the Christians of being 
the cause of this calamity, as enemies of the gods, instead 
of being brought by it to the consciousness of their own guilt 
and corruption. But Cyprian required of his church that 
they should behold, in this desolating pestilence, a trial of 
their dispositions. ‘How necessary is it, my dearest breth- 
ren, he says to them, ‘that this pestilence, which appears to 
bring horror and destruction, should prove the consciences 
of men! It will determine whether the healthy will take 
care of the sick, whether relations bear tender love one to 
another, and whether masters care for their sick servants.’ 
That the Christians should show a spirit of mutual love 
among themselves, was not sufficient to satisfy a bishop who 
formed his notions after the model of the great Shepherd. 
He therefore called his church together, and addressed them 
thus: ‘If we do good only to our own people, we do no more 


than publicans and heathens. But if we are the children 
25 


298 LECTURE X. 


of God, who makes his sun shine and his rain to descend 
upon the just and the unjust; who sheds abroad his bless- 
ings, not on his own alone, but even upon those whose 
thoughts are far from him; we must show this by our 
actions, endeavouring to become perfect as our Father in 
heaven is perfect, and blessing those who curse, and doing 
good to those who persecute us.’ Encouraged by this pa- 
ternal admonition, the members of the church addressed 
themselves to the work; the rich contributing money, and 
the poor their labour ; so that in a short time the streets were 
cleared of the corpses who filled them, and the city saved 
from the dangers of a universal pestilence.”* | 

That the spirit of primitive Christians is still the charac- 
teristic spirit of christianity, in regard to all works of charity, 
may easily be seen. Go where the gospel has attained the 
greatest supremacy, and behold how every form of human 
misery is met by the self denying diligence, and comforted by 
the munificence, of the benevolent. What conceivable method 
of removing distress, of preventing vice, and disseminating 
happiness, has not been put in operation? The whole Roman 
empire had not one benevolent institution. The single city 
of London counts her three hundred! And why is so little 
said or thought of them, except that the public mind has be- 
come so accustomed to the noblest efforts of benevolence, that 
they are now regarded almost as matters of course—the 
natural consequence of prevailing principles of aay, 
kindness and charity ? 

It is not my design to exhibit any thing like a full length | 
portrait of the contrast between the civilization of modern, 
and that of ancient nations. It is seen in all the relations of 
life; in the whole fabric of society, from the government of 
the family, to that of the state; from the tender cares of the 
cradle and the mother to the wide concerns of communities 
and rulers. Every thing has felt the change. ‘Though not 
perfect, it is immense. Much remains to be Rote but mist 
sonactSetrctsaatbtsSenrat-tiedssteb bas ei decane, oak aa 


* Rose’s translation of Neander’s Ch. Hist. 


ad 


LECTURE X, 299 


improvements have been effected. Were the whole work 
undone: should the sun, which now enlightens the moral 
world, be commanded to go back, and suffer the classic 
paganism of (rreece and Rome to resume its Sway ; every 
joint in the mechanism of society would groan with pain ; 
every corner in the household of civilized beings would be 
filled with darkness; the transition from the arts and litera- 
ture of England to those of Hottentots or New Zealanders, 
would not be greater than such a change from the moral 
elevation of the present age, to the highest refinements of the 
purest nations of antiquity. 

Such is the fact. It remains to be accounted for. What 
produced this change? The religion of ancient heathens 
pleads “not guilty” to the charge. It had no reference to 
morals. 'The vilest crimes and the highest repute for piety 
were perfectly consistent with each other, among heathens 
of the Augustan age. It was no part of the business of their 
priests to teach men virtue. No religion but that of the 
Bible ever possessed or aimed at the power of reformation. 
Esqually clear are the literature, and philosophy, and arts of 
antiquity from the imputation of this mighty revolution. 
Never did they prevail so extensively among the heathen, as 
in the first century of christianity; and never were they ac- 
companied with such moral degradation. Philosophy had 
as little disposition, as ability to reform. Whatever light it 
may have possessed, it monopolized ; holding its truth in un- 
righteousness, and studiously conforming its practice to the 
worst abominations. “Cicero declares that the ancient phi- 
losophers never reformed either themselves or their disciples ; 
and that he knew not a single instance in which either the 
teacher or the disciple was made virtuous by their principles.”* 

* Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. 

“In their writings and conversation, the philosophers of antiquity asserted 
the independent dignity of reason; but they resigned their actions to the com- 
mands of law and custom. Viewing with a smile of pity and indulgence the 


various errors of the vulgar, they diligently practised the ceremonies of their 
fathers, devoutly frequented the temples of the gods; and, sometimes conde- 


300 LECTURE X. 


But it may be supposed that, without any other cause 
than its own natural fluctuation, the moral condition of 
ancient nations may have taken a change, like the tides of 
the ocean, and begun to rise from the mere fact of being re- 
duced to solow an ebb. Answer this by the present state of 
those nations that continued under the native influence of 
paganism. In which of them was such a thing ever known, 
as a reformation of public morals? 'Their unvaried history, 
from the days of Moses to the present, settles the matter, that 
heathenism has no power, but of progressive corruption ; 
and, left to itself, can only reduce its votaries into deeper 
and deeper debasement. Then, if the vast improvement in 
question is neither the consequence of the religion, nor the 
philosophy, nor the arts, nor the literature, nor of any 
natural reaction in the moral state of the ancient heathen ; to 
what other cause must it be assigned? History has but one 
answer. Reason has but one answer. Christianity alone ; 
single-handed, persecuted christianity, by the agency of 
twelve obscure Jews, began the wonderful change, and under 
the favour of God, has accomplished its every step of ad- 
vancement. ‘Till such a thing as the religion of Christ ap- 
peared in the world, a reformation of heathen society was 
never dreamed of. Tull Christians appeared among the 
Gentiles, none had ever adventured, none were ever disposed, 
to labour for the improvement of mankind. Christian writers 
were the first that dared to drag the abominations of classic 
antiquity to light, and brand them with the condemnation 


of truth and righteousness. The first christian emperor 
aa rear ren arean ear arnemmenne ee meee 
scending to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they concealed the senti- 
ments of an Atheist under the sacerdotal robes. It was indifferent to them 
what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to assume; and they ap- 
proached, with the same inward contempt and the same external reverence, 
the altars of the Lybian, the Olympian, or the Capitoline Jupiter.” —Gibbon’s 
History, i. 34. 

A sorry tribute, by a philosopher, to the benevolence and honesty of his 
ancient brethren. Paul would have drawn their picture with a darker pencil 
still, Paul’s Master would have named them “hypocrites,” “whited sepulchres.” 


LECTURE X. 301 


issued the first prohibition of inhuman practices and amuse- 
ments, which many centuries had sanctioned. ‘Till the 
gospel set up its churches and gathered its disciples, the 
gentile world had never seen such a spectacle as that of a 
society united by bands of love; shining in the beauty of 
holiness; animated with zeal to do good at the expense of 
self-denial and sacrifice. 

How exclusively the happy effects of which we have been’ 
speaking are the fruit of christianity, is evident from the fact 
that, when you take up a map of the world and mark out 
the boundaries of christendom, you mark also the boundaries 
of all civilization and refinement ; that as you approach the 
regions where the Bible is best known and most obeyed, you 
perceive a rapid increase of all the virtues, and charities, and 
blessings of which the society of man is capable; that the 
highest elevation of the human character is where chris- 
tianity reigns in her purest form, and the blackest page in 
the history of Christendom, the page most polluted with vice, 
and red with cruelty and murder, is the record of the people 
who trampled down the institutions of the gospel, decreed the 
living God out of existence, and attempted to raise the deities 
of ancient paganism from the dead. That many individuals 
who deny the truth, and profess to be free from the influence 
of christianity, are decent men and far removed from the 
condition of the heathen in point of moral precept, as well 
as practice, is no evidence against our position. The light 
of christianity is all about them, and they cannot help seeing 
by its aid. They have learned christian truth from their 
childhood, and it cannot be unlearned. Do what they may, 
they cannot think or act without its influence. They may 
boast the sufficiency of their own reason, but they can no 
more exercise their reason without the aid of revelation, than 
they can breathe the air of spring without the fragrance of 
its flowers. “On all questions of morality and religion, the 
streams of thought have flowed through channels enriched 
with a celestial ore, baba they have derived the tincture 


302 LECTURE X. 


to which they are indebted for their rarest and most salutary 
qualities.** What a community of deists would be without 
christianity, can only be known by remembering what deists 
were before christianity came into the world, and what they 
became, when in France they supposed ney had almost ban- 
ished her from the earth. 

How remarkable are the confessions of infidels to the 
excellent fruit and indispensable influence of the gospel! 
Bolingbroke acknowledges, “that Constantine acted the part 
of a sound politician in protecting christianity, as it tended 
to give firmness and solidity to his empire, softened the fero- 
city of the army, and reformed the licentiousness of the 
provinces, and by infusing a spirit of moderation and sub- 
mission to government, tended to extinguish those principles 
of avarice and ambition, injustice and violence, by which 
so many factions were formed.” “No religion,” says the 
same opposer of christianity, “ever appeared in the world 
whose natural tendency was so much directed to promote the 
peace and happiness of mankind. It makes right reason a 
law in every possible definition of the word. And therefore, 
even supposing it to have been purely a human invention, it 
had been the most amiable and the most useful invention 
that was ever imposed on mankind for their good.” 'Thus 
even Rousseau : “If all were perfect Christians, individuals 
would do their duty; the people would be obedient to the 
laws ; the magistrates incorrupt ; and there would be neither 
vanity nor luxury in such a state.” Such are the confessions 
of many other writers of the same class. And yet these 
men would run the ploughshare through the foundations of 
the church of Christ, so that one stone should not be left upon 
another. So much for the consistency, the virtue, and dis- 
interested benevolence of infidelity; or rather so much for 
the contradiction between its head and its heart, its convic- 
tions and its vices. . 


* Robert Hall. 


LECTURE X. 303 


illustrative of the legitimate fruits of christianity ; more com- 
pletely in proof that all the social and moral blessings which 
civilized nations at present enjoy, are to be ascribed to her 
influence; and that what she once was, as a tree of life to the 
nations, she is now, and ever will be ; than the history of the 
missions among the heathen, which protestant Christians are 
now sustaining. Here we have experiments of her power 
in all climates, over all habits and dispositions, and with all 
classes of mind. She has gone in among the ice-bound in- 
habitants of Greenland, whose intellect was as slow, and 
sleepy, and creeping, as the seals they lived on; and whose 
hearts were as barren and cold as their perpetual snows. 
She has entered among the inhabitants of the southern 
extreme of Africa, the Hottentots, the very lowest gradation 
of human nature, whose souls were supposed to be as incapa- 
ble of enlightening and enlargement as the instincts of the 
vermin that covered them. She has tried her powers among 
the ferocious tribes of American Indians; upon warriors 
nourished with blood, and breathing a spirit of slaughter 
which no sufferings nor dangers could ever tame. She has 
lifted up her voice in the islands of the Pacific, among sav- 
ages uniting with the most inhuman idolatry, the most beastly 
vices and unnatural cruelties; and from all this heteroge- 
neous display of unshapen depravity, by the mere influence 
of her truth and love, she has led forth a multitude of disci- 
ples for the Lord Jesus, in whom are found precisely the 
same distinctive features of meekness, humility, love, and 
holiness. Look at the Sandwich, or the Society Islands ! 
Within our own times were they universally pagan, having 
no altars but those of demons; no law but that of violence ; 
no morals but those of unbridled passion. Theft was the 
most national art. Polygamy ; crimes against nature ; the 
murder of prisoners taken in war; the destruction of infants 
and the sacrificing of human victims, prevailed throughout 
their population. What is the change! Where are now 
their idols? In the museums of our missionary societies, as 


304 LECTURE X. 


trophies of the victories of the cross; or cast “to the moles 
and the bats” by those who once adored them. ‘The plan 
and mould of society have been recast. Laws, wisely 
enacted and well admistered, keep the peace and promote 
improvements. Crimes of all kinds are obliged to cease or 
go into concealment. Marriage has given parents new affec- 
tion for their children, and their children new ties among 
each other. Benevolence, unknown before, has awakened a 
desire to go about doing good. 'The Sabbath is reverenced 
and widely kept for rest and worship. ‘The arts of peace are 
cultivated where formerly the only art desired was that of 
war. ‘The march of civilization is visible in all domestic 
comforts and private affairs; in agriculture, commerce, build- 
ings, cleanliness, dress, manners, and government. Schools 
are spread through the islands, and education is eagerly 
sought by a large portion of the people of all ages and classes. 
Such are the fruits of christianity in our day. Nothing else 
could have produced such fruits. Just after infidelity had 
given the world a full length portrait, in the French revolu- 
tion, of her power to tear down, and tear in pieces, and drown 
in blood, whatever is lovely and of good report; then chris- 
tianity set out, on the opposite side of the world, to furnish 
a striking contrast, in the missions of the Pacific, of her 
benign influence to exterminate whatever is odious and 
depraved.* 


* It is well known to the author that travellers and voyagers not unfre- 
quently bring back reports of the effects of missionary labours in the regions 
they have visited, which stagger the minds of many sincere friends of foreign 
missions. The accounts of what those honoured and devoted servants of 
Christ, called missionaries, are doing, and of the advances which the gospel 
is making under their influence, may all be true; much more than they relate 
may be true; and yet it is very conceivable, yea, natural, that such men as 
cur ordinary visiters of foreign lands should return from those regions, having 
neither seen nor heard any thing of the matter. Suppose a missionary were 
accomplishing, with his schools and his preaching, among a tribe of Indians 
Pee gicial of the state of New York, about as much as is reported of the 
Raa sg aieiie sta? biti of Ceylon ; how long might an intelligent 

religion, no relish for its intelligence, no love for 


LECTURE X. 305 


Not only has the religion of the gospel produced such 
fruits, but the experiment of eighteen hundred years is per- 
fect proof, that in proportion as it shall ever be possessed in 


the society of its disciples, no knowledge of its journals—a man of fashion 
and gayety, mingling only with the literary and worldly-minded; how long 
might he reside in the fashionable circles of the city of New York, and sail 
up the Hudson, and stop at Saratoga, and visit N iagara, and yet know abso- 
lutely nothing of that diligent missionary and his usefulness?) Men who 
have lived all their days in a city which abounds in religious institutions and 
christian labours, without having become sufficiently informed to give a stran- 
ger a correct account even of their respective characters, much less of their 
real usefulness, will touch at a port in the Sandwich islands, see the port 
population, go no further than the coast, inquire of none but the ungodly, and 
then come home and report that the missionaries have done nothing to civilize 
or convert the people. How should such men know? On their principles 
of judging, it might be reported, with equal reason, that christianity has 
secured no influence, and done no good, in the city of New York. An anec- 
dote will illustrate how such authorities deserve to be regarded, A gentle- 
man, not long since, returned to his native city in England, after having spent 
some three or four years in India. The pious people of his acquaintance 
(not considering the extent of the Indies, and his indifference to the cause of 
Christ) supposed that of course he had seen the missionary stations, and 
knew by his own observation all about the reported progress of religion in 
that country. They inquired of him the state of things in this respect. He 
assured them that the accounts they had read of missionary doings and suc- 
cesses in the East had no foundation—were mere traps to get contributions. 
He had been in India, and travelled extensively, and had seen nothing of any 
inroads upon heathenism, nor any changes among the people; had scarcely 
heard of tae existence of missionary stations. The people were amazed! 
Much harm was doing; when a clergyman of the place, hearing of the mat- 
ter, took an opportunity to converse with the traveller. Before disclosing his 
object, he said to him: “You. are probably familiar with the national 
school system of instruction in this country. What do you think of it?” 
“Why no,” answered the traveller, “I really am not acquainted with it.” 
‘But you doubtless know that there is such a system, and have probably seen 
its establishments, and heard much of its usefulness.” —‘‘ Why no, I have 
never happened to do so, though I have a indistinct idea of the existence of 
such a system.”—‘‘ Well,” said the clergyman, “I will tell you. The national 
_ school system has been established for several years in England. Its schools 
are all over the country ; its pupils are many hundreds of thousands ; its 
influence is universally felt. It maintains more than one school in your imme- 
diate neighbourhood. Almost all your life has been spent in England, a 
small country, and yet you know nothing of these interesting facts. You 
have been a short time in the immense region of India, over which a few 


306 LECTURE X. 


native soundness, and have room and freedom to spread its 
roots and extend its branches, it will continue to bear such 
fruit, more and more abundantly and perfectly, to the end of 
time. ‘This tree of life was planted to live through all ages, 
and spread its shadow over all nations. 'The trials it stood 
in its infancy; the fierce assaults of every species of enmity, 
which in every age of its subsequent growth have endea- 
voured in vain to destroy it, are evidences that, as no human 
power could have thus protected it, so no human opposition 
can hereafter prevent its increase; that it must grow, and 
spread, and blossom, till time shall be no more. 

I am well aware, and I desire not to conceal, that it is very 
common with infidels to ascribe wars, intrigues, bloodshed, 
and persecutions, to the influence of christianity, and to 
assert that the world has been covered with slaughter by the 
hand of the gospel. 'The truth is, that whenever any evils, 
such as wars or persecutions, arise, though infidels by pro- 
fession, or mere nominal christians, are at the bottom of 
them; though originated and carried on out of direct enmity 
to the gospel; yet, because the christian name is involved in 
the contest, infidels set down the whole to the account of 
a religion, which, nevertheless, their chief men confess, has 
a direct tendency to make every body do his duty,* and “ to 
promote the peace and happiness of mankind.”+ But on 
the other hand, whenever any good is done in society, such 
as the banishment of the crimes and vices of heathenism ; 
the promotion of virtue, peace, good laws, good institutions, 
benevolence, domestic and public happiness; then infidels 
have great difficulty in seeing how these blessings are con- 
nected with christianity, even though, by their own acknow- 


missionary stations are scattered, as drops upon a desert; and because, in 
Visiting a few prominent places, you heard or saw nothing of their influence 
upon the millions of heathen, you would persuade us that what we have read 
is all untrue. How much more should we believe that the national school 
system isa fable!” The traveller was silenced; the people were satisfied. 

* Rousseau, t Bolingbroke. 


LECTURE X. 307 


ledgment, the life of Jesus “showed at once what excellent 
creatures men would be, when under the influence and power 
of that gospel which he preached.” 

It is freely granted that in countries called christian, great 
evils remain to be cured; their history abounds with wars, 
some of which have been on account of the christian religion, 
and have been accompanied with great slaughter and lasting 
enmities. But before these deplorable facts can justly be at- 
tributed to the influence of the peaceful and gentle religion 
of Jesus, a number of important questions, which we shall 
presently name, must be decided. By the confession of one 
of the most noted infidels: “We have in Christ an example 
of one who was just, honest, upright, and sincere, and above 
all, of a most gracious and benevolent temper and behaviour. 
One who did no wrong, no injury to any man; in whose 
mouth was no guile; who went about doing good, not only 
by his ministry, but also in curing all manner of diseases 
among the people. His life showed what excellent creatures 
men would be when under the influence and power of that 
gospel which he preached unto them.”t' But hear on this 
head the eloquence of the profligate Rousseau, venturing for 
once to speak the truth: “TI will confess that the majesty of 
the scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of 
the gospel has its influence on my heart. Peruse the works 
of our philosophers with all their pomp of diction ; how con- 
temptible are they compared with the scriptures! Is it possi- 
ble that a book at once so simple and sublime should be merely 
the work of man? Is it possible that the sacred personage 
whose name it records, should be himself a mere man? What 
sweetness, what purity in his manner! What sublimity in 
his maxims! What profound wisdom in his discourses! 
Where is the man, where the philosopher, who coufd so live 
and so die without weakness and without ostentation? If 
the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the lif 


* Chubb’s True Gospel, § viii. 55, 6. 
+ Chubb’s True Gospel, § viii. 56, 57. 


308 LECTURE X. 


and death of Jesus were those of a God.” Such are the con- 
fessions of a man whose vice and vanity constrained him to 
say: “I cannot believe the gospel.” No wonder, when at 
the same time he was saying in his heart, [ will not renounce 
my debaucheries. 

But such confessions abound in the writings of infidels, so 
that “the whole christian argument might be maintained on 
the admissions of one or other of the leading infidel writers; _ 
and no contest remain, unless, if it could then be called one, 
with the miserable, ignorant ferocity of Paine and his asso- 
ciates.”* 

On the ground of such acknowledgments, and of the ac- 
quaintance which any who ever read the New ‘Testament 
must have with its principles and tendency, let the following 
questions be answered: Is there any tendency in the princi- 
ples of the gospel to the enkindling of strife, hatred, war, or 
bloodshed? Was the character of its founder; were the 
characters of the apostles and primitive Christians among 
whom the native influence of christianity was most unequivo- 
cally exhibited, in any manner indicative of such a tendency 
in its principles? Is not the whole history of the purest ages 
of the gospel, as well as every page in the New Testament, 
directly in proof of the very opposite effect? Did not all the 
evils of war and national dissension prevail much more 
universally before the establishment of christianity, than they 
have done since? Is not the influence of this religion plainly 
visible in mitigating those horrors of war which she has not 
exterminated? And as to those which have continued to 
subsist, are they in direct consequence, or in spite of her in- 
fluence ; the fruit of the tree, or the poisonous weeds at its 
root, whisk oppose its growth? Are the men who have been 
concernéd in promoting these evils, and who are called Chris- 
ans, believed to have been real Christians? Do not infidels 
dnecietnde sufficiently between genuine and nominal reli- 
gion, to understand that, in thus acting, they were departing 


% Wilson’s Lectures. 


LECTURE X. 309 


trom the principles of the gospel, and proving that they were 
Christians but in name? “Have not the courts of princes, 
notwithstanding christianity may have been the professed 
religion of the land, been generally attended by a far greater 
proportion of deists, than of serious Christians ; and have not 
public measures been directed by the counsels of the former, 
much more than by those of the latter? It.is well known 
that great numbers among the nobility and gentry of every 
nation consider religion as aidited only to vulgar minds; and 
therefore either wholly absent themselves from public wor- 
ship, or attend but seldom, and then only to save appearances 
towards a national establishment. In other words, they are 
unbelievers. ‘This is the description of men by which pub- 
lic affairs are commonly managed, and to which the good or 
the evil pertaining to them, so far as human agency is con- 
cerned, is to be attributed.’”* 

It is a favourite manoeuvre with infidels to charge chris- 
tianity with all the persecutions on account of religion, and, 
at the same time, to speak in high terms of “the mild tole- 
rance of the ancient heathens;” of “the universal toleration 
of polytheism ;” of “the Roman princes beholding without con- 
cerna thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their 
gentle sway.”t Better information on this subject is greatly 
needed in the community. Heathen toleration was any thing 
but virtuous, and much less universal than its modern eulo- 
gists would represent. It allowed all nations to establish 
whatever description of religion they pleased, provided each 
would acknowledge that all, in their several spheres, were 
equally good. But pagan nations required of every citizen 
conformity to the national idolatries. This yielded, he might 
believe and be, whatever he pleased. 'This denied, immedi 
ately toleration ceased. Take a few examples. Stilpo was 
banished Athens, for affirming that the statue of Minerva, in 
the citadel, was no divinity, but only the work of the chisel 
of Phidias. Protagoras received a similar punishment for 


* Fuller’s Gospel its own Witness. + Gibbon. 
26 


310 LECTURE X. 


this single sentence: “ Whether there be gods or not, I have 
nothing to offer.” Prodicus and his pupil, Socrates, suffered 
death for opinions at variance with the established idolatry 
of Athens. Alcibiades and Aischylus narrowly escaped a 
like end for a similar cause. Plato dissembled his opinions ; 
and Aristotle fled his country, under the lash of the mild and 
universal toleration of the Grecian mythology. Cicero lays 
it down as a principle of legislation entirely conformable to 
the rights of the Roman state, that “no man shall have sepa- 
rate gods for himself; and no man shall worship by himself 
new or foreign gods, unless they have been publicly acknow- 
ledged by the laws of the state”* The speech, in Dion 
Cassius, which Mecenas is said to have made to Augustus, 
may be considered a fair index of the prevailing sentiment 
of that polished age. “Honour the gods,” says Mecenas, 
“by all means, according to the customs of your country, 
and force others so to honour them. But those who are 
for ever introducing something foreign in these matters, hate 
and punish, not only for the sake of the gods, but also because 
they who introduce new divinities mislead many others into 
receiving foreign laws also. Suffer no man either to deny 
the gods, or to practise sorcery.” Julius Paulus, the Roman 
civilian, gives the following as a leading feature of Roman 
law: “Those who introduced new religions, or such as were 
unknown in their tendency and nature, by which the minds 
of men might be agitated, were degraded if they belonged to 
the higher ranks, and if they were in a lower state, were 
punished with death.” Under this legislation, many of the 
governors endeavoured to compromise with Christians, by 
allowing them to believe and honour what they pleased in 
their hearts, provided they would observe outwardly the reli- 
gious ceremonies ordained by the state.t 

Examples to the same effect, might be greatly multiplied. 
I have furnished enough to show in what sense the heathen 


* De Legibus, ii. 8, t See Neander’s Church History. 


LECTURE X. 311 


gion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway ;” and how 
far Voltaire was accurately informed or honestly disposed, 
when boasting that the ancient Romans “ never persecuted a 
single philosopher for his opinions from the time of Romu- 
lus till the popes got possession of their power.” 

It is willingly conceded that persecutions on account of 
religion were enormously increased immediately after the 
promulgation of christianity ; inasmuch as nothing had ever 
before attacked the superstitions and vices of the heathen 
with her undaunted, uncompromising spirit. But did chris- 
tianity persecute; or was she the object of persecution ? 
Was Jesus the persecutor of Pilate? Did Paul persecute the 
worshippers of the Ephesian Diana, or the heathen of Ico- 
nium, or those who stoned him at Lystra ? By whose intole- 
rance was it, that, for three hundred years, the christian 
church was continually overflowed with :the blood of her 
martyrs? Did the multitudes who perished for Christ’s 
sake, under the paw of the lion, and the sword of the gladia- 
tor, and the screws of the rack—did they persecute the hea- 
then priests, and people, and magistrates—Nero, and Trajan, 
and Diocletian—with their proconsuls, and governors, and 
executioners? 1 grant that in the lapse of centuries the 
guilt of persecution did attach to the church. Christian 
powers, and ministers, and people have, in various ages, been 
justly liable to this lamentable charge. But who does not 
know that the church, before ever she began to persecute, 
had manifestly degenerated from the purity of the gospel, 
and become deeply poisoned with the spirit of the world, hav- 
ing her chief places occupied by such men as infidels know 
were not influenced by vital christianity ?* Who is so blind 
as not to see that wherever such evils have existed among 


— 


* The emperor Julian acknowledged that persecutions were the inventions 
of the later Christians; that neither Jesus, nor Paul, nor any other of the 
first preachers of the gospel, had taught men to kill others for being of a 
different religion, or for differing about lesser matters among themselves.— 
Lardner, iv, 337, 


312 LECTURE X. 


any people called Christians, they have been because those 
people had so little of the spirit of the gospel, and not because 
they had any of it? They have been directly the reverse 
of the religion professed by such persons ; the fruits of their 
own native disposition, combined with the character of the 
ages they lived in, assimilating them thus far to infidels, 
who have always been persecutors in proportion to their 
power. ‘T'rue christianity desires but one favour: liberty to 
preach “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Her whole 
dependance is on “the demonstration of the Spirit.” “God 
giveth the increase.” 

We have now applied to christianity the test by which she 
claims to be proved; one universally employed as safe, and 
approved as just; the tree is known by its fruits. The 
religion of the gospel we have seen coming into the world at 
a period when every moral evil abounded. 'The grossest 
idolatry, attended with the most inhuman and indecent rites, 
prevailed among the most enlightened nations. Spectacles 
of slaughter and suffering constituted the public amusements. 
Parents without natural affection, children in slavery to their 
parents, and at the mercy of their displeasure, the female sex 
degraded to a rank of servile inferiority, murders and cruel- 
ties characterized the age. Vices of the most beastly kind 
were practised and avowed in the highest and most influ- 
ential classes of society. What would now shame out of the 
world the most degraded of mankind, could then be ac- 
knowledged, even by a public teacher of morals, without 
reproach. Public opinion, the thermometer of public virtue, 
had no condemnation for habits not only against all the 
securities of domestic happiness and social welfare, but 
against every dictate of nature, and requiring for their per- 
mission the lowest debasement of the moral sense of the 
community. Among all the gentile nations, none possessed 
the benevolence to attempt, nothing had power to effect, the 
reformation of a world thus sunk in wretchedness, and para- 
lyzed with vice. It was the era, indeed, of the world’s wis- 


LECTURE X. 313 


dom; but of a wisdom by which the world knew not God. 
For centuries, had the wise men after the flesh been teaching, 
and writing, and boasting; and as long had every wo been 
increasing, and every school becoming more perplexed in its 
doctrines, and more abandoned in the practice of its disciples. 
No change, for the better, was hoped for from any human 
source. ‘Then appeared “the wisdom of God.” Chris- 
tianity, uninvited, unwelcomed, rejected ; christianity, perse- 
cuted as intrusive, despised as foolishness, ridiculed as weak- 
ness, commenced at this crisis the bold work of regenerating 
the world. Wherever she gained acceptation the face of 
society was renewed. Order, purity, benevolence, justice, 
mercy, every personal, domestic, and public virtue increased 
as her influence extended. Under her charge, immense com- 
munities of men and women were formed, who soon became 
famous in the world for their earnest selfdenying benevo- 
lence, and their devotion to holiness. No sooner was chris- 
tianity professed by the rulers of the Roman empire, than 
idolatry, with every unnatural crime and cruel amusement, 
was abolished from society, or compelled to deny its exist- 
ence. In proportion as this religion has reigned in any age 
or country, there has been a manifest increase of all the bless- 
ings of civilization, all the arts of peace, all the virtues of in- 
dividual character, all the securities of a wise and equitable 
government. Nothing has retarded the growth of these 
benefits but what has alike retarded the progress of chris- 
tianity. No christian people have suffered on account of 
any evil, which christianity has not directly opposed. Pre- 
sent efforts to spread this holy religion among the heathen 
demonstrate that her natural force is not abated, nor her 
influence changed. What she did among the pagans of the 
first, she is accomplishing, though as yet by slower steps, 
among those of the nineteenth century. Such has been 
from the beginning; such is now; and such, we have every 
reason to believe, ever will be the fruit of christianity. By 


this she is known. By this let her claims to truth and divine 
26% 


314 LECTURE X. 


original be judged. Every honest mind is capable of appre- 
ciating the evidence, and of applying the law. It is a case 
by itself. No party appears to claim the credit of what chris- 
tianlity ascribes to herself. Philosophy and the light of na- 
ture are joined to their idols and vices, and caunot come to 
the trial, and must therefore be excused. Infidelity was 
tried during the “Reign of Terror” in France, and received 
its sentence at the guillotine, and therefore cannot come. 
Hither the blessings we have described must be adjudged, 
according to the plea, to the gospel of Christ, or pronounced 
to be effects without a cause. Do they belong to the gos- 
pel, or to nothing? We speak the language of every con- 
science and of all common sense when we say, the gos- 
pel alone produced them, and the gospel alone could produce 
them ; and should the gospel be thoroughly conformed to in 
all the world, the whole world would be morally renovated, 
and all those physical evils which proceed from the vices of 
mankind would pass away. 

What, then, is christianity? “Do men gather grapes of 
thorns, or figs of thistles?” “Can a corrupt tree bring forth 
good fruit ?” This religion is either a truth or a fable; the 
revelation of God, or the wicked and blasphemous contrivance 
ofman. If it be the work of human contrivance, it must be 
unspeakably offensive to God, inasmuch as it ascribes all its 
doctrines directly to His teaching; exalts its Founder to the 
dignity of the divine nature, calling him the Son of God, 
and making him equal to the Father in power and glory. 
Between its entire truth as a divine revelation, and its un- 
paralleled audacity and impiety as a human imposture, there 
can be no middle ground. The unbeliever, in rejecting the 
former, must resort, if consistent, to the latter. Then let us 
see how much he is bound to believe in maintaining his 
position. He must believe that since the truth, according te 
his views, does not reside in christianity, it does reside in 
some or all of the systems of religion, or of philosophy, or of 


LECTURE X. 315 


infidelity, to which christianity is opposed. His creed, there- 
fore, is substantially the following: ‘I believe that in pro- 
portion as the world has ever been committed to the influence 
of those antichristian systems among which the truth is to 
be found ; it has been continually increasing in all moral de- 
generacy, having in it no spirit nor power of reformation. 
I believe, also, that in proportion as christianity, which should 
be regarded only as a human contrivance of the grossest 
blasphemy and impiety, has reigned in the hearts and lives 
of men ; the world has been morally renovated, society hu- 
manized, benevolence invigorated, personal and public happi- 
ness extended and purified. Consequently, I believe that a 
God infinitely wise, holy, and true, has so constituted man- 
kind, that for the improvement and well-being of society, we 
are under the necessity of believing and promoting what is 
not only false, but heinously offensive to Himself; truth must 
be concealed because we learn by experience that its currency 
can only be accompanied with the greatest evils to the morals, 
the peace, the whole interest of mankind ; teachers of error 
and darkness must be depended upon as instruments of hu- 
man elevation, while teachers of the truth should be discounte- 
nanced as capable of nothing but the unhinging of the whole 
frame-work of private and public welfare’ These, I say, are 
the articles of belief which, whether avowed or not, do lie 
wrapped up in the rejection of christianity. The proof of 
this assertion is in the lecture we are now closing. I need 
not say that it sets, in strong and shining relief, the truth of 
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as a revelation from Him 
who is the giver of every good and perfect gift. “For the 
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness: but 
unto us which are saved it is the power of God. Where is 
the wise? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not 
God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that 
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, 
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them 


316 LECTURE X. 


that believe ; for the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek 
after wisdom : But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews 
a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness: But unto 
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the 
power of God and the wisdom of God.” 


* 1 Corinthians, i. 18—24. 


LECTURE XI. 317 


LECTURE. XI. 


THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 


Tue rule by which christianity was tried in our last lec- 
ture, is as philosophical as it is scriptural. It is the rule of 
experiment, in distinction from all the whims of conjecture 
and ingenious theory, and has an application, as legitimate 
and conclusive, to the character of christianity, as to that of 
any tree, or food, or medicine. None can deny that the 
experiment of the religion of Christ has been varied suffi- 
ciently to put it to the fairest trial, and continied long enough 
to develope its most hidden qualities. Exposed to all ex- 
iremes of physical and moral temperature ; tried upon all de- 
scriptions of human beings; required to preserve its purity 
amidst all contagions ; to display its energies under all con- 
ceivable burdens and bonds; to bear its fruit under the most 
blasting influences ; and to stand against all possible combi- 
nations of enmity ; sometimes subjected to the action of the 
fire, then of the rack, and then of the knife, of unrelenting 
persecutors ; eighteen hundred‘ years have measured out its 
trial, during which, whatever could be effected by science 
united with industry, malice united with power, or vigilance 
united with hypocrisy, has been done unceasingly to torture 
it into a confession or a display of something at variance 
with divine original. The trial, therefore, is sufficient. ‘The 
tree has had time and ample opportunity to be known by 
its fruits. If it may not be finally tried by this rule, in the 
nineteenth century of its budding and bearing, the fault 
must be sought in the rule itself, not in the subject of inquiry. | 

In our last lecture we confined our attention to the fruits 
of christianity in regard to society in general. In the 
present we are to consider 


‘318 LECTURE XI. 


Its FRUITS IN REGARD TO THE CHARACTER AND HAPPI- 
NESS OF ITS GENUINE DISCIPLES. 

It is not without reflection that I introduce this subject 
into the department of external evidence. 1 am aware that 
it is generally considered as belonging exclusively to the class 
of arguments denominated internal ; but I see not with what 
propriety. So far as any effects of christianity on individual 
jisciples are incapable of being brought under the observa- 
ion of others, being confined to the inward experience of 
‘he true believer, they are unquestionably internal in their 
character, and do not belong to our present department. But 
if they be such effects as witnesses can take knowledge of; 
if the proof of them may be seen and appreciated by those 
that are without, and who can look only on the outward 
appearance; I see not but they belong, as appropriately, to 
the external evidence, as any of the effects of christianity 
upon society at large. Without further vindication of a 
matter of mere. classification,.I proceed. 

I. The moral transformations which the gospel, in all 
ages, has notoriously wrought, and by unquestionable proofs, 
exhibited to the world, in the characters of those who have 
become its genuine disciples, cannot be accounted for, 
but on the supposition of a divine power accompanying 
us operation. 

To illustrate my meaning, let me describe what has been 
witnessed under the ministry of christianity so repeatedly, 
that hardly any who have been in the way of such things 
can have failed to become acquainted with apposite examples. 
Persons of all grades of society and of intellect, and of all 
degrees of enmity to the religion of Jesus; in circumstances 
the most unpropitious to its influence on their hearts; even 
while they were filled with the spirit of malice and persecu- 
tion against its truth and disciples; have had their minds 
suddenly arrested by some simple expression of the Bible, or 
some unpretending statement of christian doctrine or expe- 
rience ; perhaps it dropped from the lips of a minister against 


LECTURE Xi. 319 


whom, at that very time, they were nerved with anger; or 
was read in a Bible, or a little despised tract, that seemed 
accidentally to lie in their way, and at which, as if by acci- 
dent they condescended to look. It told them nothing new ; 
nothing but what they had often heard or read before without 
the smallest effect. And yet, without any argument to shake 
their ungodly principles, or special application, by any hu- 
man being, of the word, thus heard or read, to their particu- 
lar condition; they felt their minds seized upon by an 
influence from which no effort of infidel argument, nor strug- 
gle of pride, nor drowning of thought, nor exertion of cour- 
age, nor devices of company and amusement, could enable 
them to escape. A hand seemed to be upon them which all 
their efforts to shake it off only fastened with more painful 
power. ‘They could get no peace of mind till they submitted 
to its arrest. They were induced’ to listen to the gospel of 
Christ, even while deeply conscious of a cordial opposition 
to its requirements. A conviction of sin and condemnation, 
such as they had ever derided, soon brought them to a pos- 
ture of body and a spirit of supplication before God, in 
which, a short time before, they would not have been seen 
for the world. Soon they submitted to the claims of the gos- 
pel; became believers in Jesus; confessed him before men, 
and appeared, to all that had known them before,—in what 
aspect? As new creatures! Only a few days have elapsed 
since they were notorious scoffers, bold blasphemers, angry 
persecutors ; of profligate habits, impure conversation, and 
hardened hearts, armed at all points against religion ; im- 
moveable, in their own estimation, by any thing christians 
could say, and regarded by almost all that knew them as 
utterly beyond conversion. | 
Now behold the change! It is a change not merely of 
belief, but of heart. Their whole moral nature has been 
recast ; affections, desires, pleasures, tempers, conduct, have 
all become new. What each hated, a few days since, he now 
affectionately loves. What the he was devotedly fond of, 


320 LECTURE XI. 


he now sincerely detests. Prayer is his delight. Holiness 
he thirsts for. His old companions he pities and loves for 
their souls’ sake; but their tastes, conversation, and habits, 
are loathsome to his heart. Feelings, recently obdurate, have 
become tender. A temper, long habituated to anger, and vio- 
lence, and resentment, is now gentle, peaceful, and forgiving. 
Christians whose company and intercourse he lately could 
not abide, are now his dear and chosen companions, with 
whom he loves to think of dwelling for ever. The proud un- 
believer is an humble disciple. The selfish profligate has 
become self-denied and exemplary, animated with a benevo- 
lent desire to do good. All these changes are so conspicuous 
to others ; he has become, and continues to be, so manifestly 
anew man, in life and heart, that the ungodly are struck 
with the suddenness and extent of the transformation. 

This is a drawing from life. That such cases have fre- 
quently occurred; and have been followed by all the perma- 
nent blessings of a holy life, in thousands of places, and 
before witnesses of all descriptions, it were a mockery of 
human testimony and of the faith of history to question. 
There is scarcely a faithful preacher of the gospel, whose 
ministry has not been blessed with such fruits. There is 
scarcely a village in this country, whose inhabitants cannot 
tell of many such examples. 'They began when christianity 
began. ‘They have been repeated as pure christianity has 
been promoted and extended. Such a case was that of Saul 
of Tarsus. One moment he was a furious enemy of Jesus; 
learned, talented, proud; of high reputation; of brilliant 
prospects ; the champion of Judea against the gospel of 
Christ ; bearing the commission, and full of the spirit of a 
persecutor. ‘I'he next, he was on his face on the ground, 
calling upon Jesus in the spirit of entire submission and 
deep repentance. In a few days, he was preaching Christ in 
the synagogues, at the risk of life, having made a total sacti- 
fice of all earthly prospects and possessions, and given him- 
self up to reproach, poverty and universal hatred, for the 


LECTURE XI. | 321 


sake of the gospel. All his dispositions, affections, and ha- 
bits, had in that short space undergone so complete a change, 
without any human agency, that he had become, and con- 
tinued to be, directly the opposite of his former character. 
Many similar examples must have been included in those 
three thousand converts of the day. of Pentecost, who, 
although when the morning rose upon them they were filled 
with all the enmity of Jews and of crucifiers of Jesus, before 
the day was over, were bowed at the feet of the same Jesus, 
as his baptized disciples. So changed were they in every 
worldly disposition, that they “sold their possessions and 
goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need ;” 
and all this under no human influence, but that of the preach- 
ing of men whom they began to hear with contempt, and of 
a doctrine to which they began to listen with the most ran- 
corous aversion. How many thousand cases of the same 
kind would the domestic history of the first century of the 
gospel furnish! What volumes might be filled with similar 
examples, which the annals of christianity in the nineteenth 
century, and especially in this country, would exhibit! Who 
has attended to the blessed effects with which the distribution 
of tracts and bibles has been accompanied, and cannot call 
to mind instances in which the wonderful changes that were 
wrought in the Earl of Rochester, in Col. Gardiner, and in 
the once degraded, and afterwards excellent John Newton, 
have in all important respects been equalled? Since I com- 
menced the preparation of this lecture, a case in point has 
come tomy view. Called from my study, to see a man who 
had come on business, I found in the parlour, a well dressed 
person, of respectable appearance, good manners, and sensi- 
ble conversation—a stranger. After a little while, he looked 
at me earnestly, and said: “I think, sir, I have seen your 
face before.”——“ Probably,” said I, supposing he had seen me 
in the pulpit. “Did you not once preach, in the receiving 
ship, at the navy-yard, on the prodigal son, sir?” “Yes,” 
“Did you not afterwards EP, t0 a sailor sitting on his chest, 


322 LECTURE XI. 


and take his hand, and say, ‘friend, do you love to read your 
Bible?” “Yes.” “I, sir, was that sailor ; but then I knew 
nothing about the Bible or about God: I was a poor, igno- 
rant, degraded sinner.” TI learned his history, in substance, 
as follows. He had been twenty-five years a sailor, and 
nearly all that time in-the service of the British navy, indulg- 
ing in all the extremes of a sailor’s vices. Drunkenness, 
debauchery, profaneness made up his character. The fear 
of death, or hell, or God, had not entered his mind. Such 
was he, a sink of depravity, when an humble preacher of 
the Methodist denomination, one day, assembled a little con- 
gregation of sailors in the ship to which he was attached, and 
spoke on the text: “ Behold, now is the accepted time; be- 
hold, now is the day of salvation.” He listened, merely 
because the preacher was once a sailor. Soon it appeared to 
him that the latter saw and knew him, though he was sitting 
where he supposed himself concealed. Every word seemed 
to be meant for a description of him. ‘To avoid being seen 
and marked, he several times changed his place, carefully 
getting behind the others. But wherever he went, the preacher 
seemed to follow him, and to describe his course of life, as 
if he knew it all. At length the discourse was ended; and 
the poor sailor, assured that he had been the single object of 
the speaker’s labours, went up and seized his hand, and said : 
“Sir, 1am the very man. 'That’s just the life Ihave led. I 
am a poor miserable man; but I feel a desire to be good, and 
will thank you for some of your advice upon the subject.” 
The preacher bade him pray. He answered, “I have never 
prayed in my life, but that I might be damned, as when I was 
swearing; and I don’t know how to pray.” He was instruct- 
ed. It was a day or two after this, while his mind was anx- 
ious but unenlightened, that Providence led me to him, sitting 
on his chest. He said I showed him a verse of the Bible, as 
one that would guide him. I asked if he remembered 
which it was. “Yes, it was, ‘Him that cometh unto me I 
will in no wise cast out’” Soon after this, his mind was 


LECTURE XI. 323 


comforted with a hope of salvation through Jesus Christ. 
His vices were all abandoned. He became, from that time, 
a new creature in all his dispositions and habits; took special 
care to be scrupulously attentive to every duty of his station ; 
gained the confidence of his officers; and, having left the 
service, has continued ever since (more than three years) 
an exemplary member of society, and of the church of Christ. 
He is so entirely renewed, that no one could imagine, from 
his appearance or manners, that he had been, for twenty-five 
years, a drunken, abandoned sailor. 'This case I have selected. 
only because it was at hand. It is by no means a solitary 
case. Nor is it any the worse for being taken from among 
the poor and ignorant. I know not that beastly vice is more 
susceptible of removal, or that habits of drunkenness, de- 
bauchery, and profaneness, are any more capable of being 
changed into those of soberness, purity, and prayer, for being 
seated in ignorance and poverty, than when associated with 
learning, rank, and opulence. 

Now, be it remarked, that the reality of such cases is a 
matter of fact, which one may question with about as much 
reason as he might deny the best established phenomena in 
natural history. Be it remarked, also, that in all such effects, 
the individuals concerned have ascribed the total change in 
their hearts and lives to the direct influence of the word and 
Spirit of God, as set forth in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They 
have generally been able to tell the particular tru th, or com- 
bination of scriptural truths, that awakened them from the 
death of sin, and led them to embrace the hope of Christ and 
the life or righteousness. Be it remarked, also, that among 
all the cases of such conversions in all ages, and regions, and 
circumstances, and with all varieties of character, there has 
been a wonderful identity. The same effects, essentially, 
have ensued under the application of the same gospel in the 
present century, as in the time of St. Paul ; in modern Europe, 
as in ancient Greece and Rome; in Hindoostan, as in North 
America ; among Hottentots, and the islanders of the South 


324 LECTURE XI. 


sea, and savages of our western borders, as among the polished 
inhabitants of New York or London. While all these va- 
rieties of age, climate, customs, and cultivation, give a natu- 
ral and pleasing variety to what may be called, in a figure, 
the complexion, and costume, in which the conversion 
appears ; the great change itself exhibits, under all circum- 
stances, the same characteristic and inimitable features ; 
insomuch that if you draw the likeness of a genuine convert 
to Christ in his chief peculiarities, as manifested in this coun- 
try, and send it to Burmah, or to the Sandwich Islands, or to 
Caffre-land, or to Whampoa in China, or to Greenland, it 
will be considered a good likeness, in main points, of the 
dispositions, affections, tempers, habits, and life, produced by 
the converting power of the gospel in any of those widely 
differing regions. A genuine convert to Christ, in China, or 
in Africa, may come to this country, and find among genu- 
ine Christians here precisely his own feelings, tastes, sympa- 
thies, and labours, though he never saw an American or 
European before; and he will be more at home among their 
christian feelings, than he can be among the manners and 
dispositions of the people among whom he grew up and has 
always lived. hus it is evident that, whatever be the cause 
of these universally similar effects, it must be the same cause, 
universally ; the same in all ages, and in all parts of the world. 

Now whether the gospel of Jesus Christ produced these 
great and invariably corresponding effects ; or whether they 
proceeded from some other universal cause, of which none of 
the subjects were ever conscious, and which was never 
known where the gospel was not known, and never operates 
but under the name, and by means of, the gospel; no man 
of any philosophical pretensions is at liberty to doubt. He 
has precisely the same reason to be assured that the gospel, 
and nothing else on earth, is the cause of these admirable 
fruits; as that any medicine is the cause of a sick man’s 
recovery to health; or that any vine, rather than a thorn-tree, 
Produced the grapes obtained from its branches, 


LECTURE XI. 325 


Then, since these effects unquestionably belong to the gos- 
pel, how are they to be accounted for? It will not do to put 
them aside, under the unceremonious imputation of fanati- 
cism or enthusiastic excitement. Words are not reasons. 
Infidel cant is not philosophical argument. If the gospel be 
untrue; then, not only must these most excellent fruits be 
attributed to a corrupt tree, and these wholesome streams to 
a poisoned fountain ; but it must be supposed that such sud- 
den and entire transformations of human character, from the 
lowest debasement of nature, to the highest principles of 
virtue and purity, are nothing more than the results of human 
agency and natural means. But if this be the case Bas aa) 
system of untruth in the hand of man has done all this, we 
have reason to expect that some other systems of doctrine, 
with the same agency, would be productive of equal effects. 
How then can it be accounted for, that nothing has ever been 
invented or heard of, in all the earth, to which any results of 
a like kind could be ascribed? Other causes have produced 
strong excitements, but no transformation of heart and life, 
from sin to holiness. Other means have improved the morals 
of men, by slow and in small degrees ; but none ever took 
hold of a human wreck, and lifted him up out of the mire 
and dirt of his profligacy, and carried him at once across the 
wide gulf that separated him from pureness, and in a few 
days placed him in a new moral region, with a new heart, 
and, in all things, a new creature. How can this be ex. 
plained, if the gospel be a human invention, and its effects of 
human production? Why should not infidels be capable, 
with all their wisdom and eloquence, of getting up a set of 
influences to rival these gospel wonders, and deprive Chris- 
tians of this monopoly of the work of new creation and of 
holiness? How is it that in proportion as any church de- 
generates from the simplicity and purity of the gospel, it: 
ceases to witness such changes in the people attendant on its 
preaching? It is nothing to say that many things called con- 


versions eventuate in no good fruits, and are nothing more 
27* 


326 LECTURE XI. 


than.the natural consequences of temporary excitement. This 
is freely granted. But you do not condemn a whole orchard, 
because some of the trees were not successfully grafted ; nor 
all virtuous men, because some, under the profession of virtue, 
are mere pretenders. It is sufficient that thousands and 
thousands of these effects have been of the most radical and 
permanently beneficial character. Were they of human pro- 
duction; something of a corresponding kind would have 
appeared from other sources; by: other hands than those of 
Christians ; in other countries and ages than those enlightened 
by the Bible. Inasmuch as this has never occurred, we are 
fully warranted in concluding that 7¢ could not ; consequently, 
that these effects are above the reach of human power. To 
whom then shall we go but unto thee, O Lord! who hast 
committed this treasure of the gospel to earthen vessels, to 
feeble men, to dispense it; “that the excellency of the power 
may be of God, and not of us.” That we cannot compre- 
hend in what manner the power of God operates in the 
hearts of men, to work such wonderful revolutions in their 
characters, is no valid objection to the matter of fact. “The 
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it 
goeth.” 'The phenomena of the winds are incomprehensible, 
and yet believed. “Sos every one that is born of the Spirit.” 

Now, I think we may be content to pass from the position 
with which we began—that the moral transformations which 
the gospel, in all ages, has notoriously wrought, and, by wun- 
questionable proofs, exhibited to the world, in the characters 
of those who have become its genuine disciples, cannot be 
accounted for, but on the supposition of a divine power acconr 
panying its operations. 

II. We proceed to speak of the fruits of christianity, as dis- 
played in the lives of its gennine disciples, in contrast with 
those which notoriously characterize the lives of its opposers. 
The virtues of true Christians have been the same in all ages” 
of christianity. It was “with well doing” that, in the days 


LECTURE XI. 327 


of St. Paul, they were accustomed to silence their enemies. 
Having become free from sin, they became servants of 
righteousness, and had their fruit unto holiness. “Such were 
some of you,” saith St. Paul to Christians of that famous 
brothel of all Greece, the city of Corinth; “Such were some 
of you (partakers in all vice); but ye are washed, but ye are 
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
and by the spirit of our God.” The apostles could appeal to 
whole communities, for evidence of their blameless character. 
“ Ye are witnesses and God also, how holily, and justly, and 
unblameably we behaved ourselves among you.” Even by 
the testimony of the ancient and deadly enemies of the gospel, 
the lives of Christians had no parallel among any other 
people. 'The early defenders of the faith publicly challenged 
a scrutiny of their virtue. It was their remarkable stead fast- 
ness in resisting the allurements of vice, and their heroic 
patience, under all the tortures employed to break their attach- 
ment to holiness, that often excited the bitterest hatred of their 
enemies. Compare the purity, benevolence, and humility of 
the apostles, with those of any philosophers of antiquity, or 
any leaders in modern infidelity. Pliny, the Roman governor, 
in the first century, having investigated extensively, and even 
by torture, the moral character of the Christians, who filled 
the province over which he presided, declares, in his cele- 
brated letter to Trajan, that he could discover nothing more 
against them than that “they were accustomed, on a stated 
day, to meet before daylight, and to repeat among themselves 
a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by an 
oath not to commit any wickedness ; but, on the contrary, to 
abstain from thefts, robberies, and adulteries ; also not to vio- 
late their promise, or deny a pledge; after which it was their 
custom to separate, and to meet again at a promiscuous, harm- 
less meal.” Gibbon fully sustains this testimony. By his 
description alone, the primitive Christians were lights of une- 
qualled excellence in the midst of heathen darkness and 
depravity. What Christians were in primitive ages, they still 


328 LECTURE XI. 


remain, exactly in proportion as you have reason to believe 
their hearts to be engaged in their faith. To say‘in this coun- 
try that any one is a true Christian, is at once to give a 
certificate that he is worthy of all confidence, and more than 
usually virtuous: we could not desire a more complete proof 
of public opinion as to the personal fruits of the gospel. The 
bare fact that there are hypocritical professors of the christian 
character ; that bad men will put themselves to the self denial 
of endeavouring to act and seem like Christians, for the pur- 
pose of gaining confidence in their integrity, is a strong proof 
of the public estimation in which christian virtue is held, and 
of the genuine gold of which the character of a real disciple 
of Christ is composed. Men never counterfeit a spurious 
currency. Copper coin is too cheap to tempt a forgery. We 
never hear of the wicked putting on the mask of infidelity, 
to secure a character for honesty, soberness, chastity, faithful- 
ness, aud benevolence. If christian virtue were not in high 
repute, and much more current in society than any other, 
hypocrites would take care to choose a mask that would sit 
more pleasantly upon their vicious propensities ; they would 
select a cloak that would less confine, and smother their 
sinful habits. It is notorious among us that no sooner do we 
hear of an individual that he has become a communicant in 
the church, than the presumption is that he is not only sober, 
honest, and of pure morality ; but that he has adopted princi- 
ples of a very elevated virtue and purity, and is more than 
ordinarily benevolent. Whence this, but from the general 
experience of what communicants are? What is it that 
makes a breach of truth and honesty, or an act of cruelty, or 
a violation of justice, or a departure from chastity or tempe- 
rance, In a person professing to be a genuine Christian, so 
immediately and generally a matter of particular notice and 
Surprise among all classes? Is it not because such occur- 
rences are singular, and little expected? But they excite no 
surprise, and but little attention, when attached to those who - 


% 


7 7 


LECTURE XI. _ 329 


reject christianity; because among such people they are 
neither singular nor unexpected. 

Why is it that parents so universally prefer to have genu- 
ine Christians intrusted with the education of their children? 
that when places of trust and temptation are to be filled; 
when men have property to invest, or agents to engage, in a 
business requiring special inflexibility of uprightness, they 
feel it to be at once a heavy weight in the scale of a candi- 
date, that he is a sincere and devoted Christian 2* Who are 
+he benevolent, disinterested, self-denied labourers in all good 
works? Where do the poor, and hungry, and outcast, apply 
for assistance with the most confidence of finding a sympa- 
vhizing heart and a ready hand? Go around to all the noble 
institutions of charity; to the asylums for orphans, for wid- 
ows, for the blind, for the deaf and dumb, for juvenile crimi- 
nals; to the schools of gratuitous instruction. Take a list 
of those who give money, and time, and toil, for their support. 
What would become of them, were it not for the Christians 
associated in all their concerns? Who are they that tread 
the loathsome alleys, and dive into the wretched habitations 


Pe tt i i ae ala ae 

* The lecturer was once particularly struck with the evidence of this. He 
‘was connected with the military academy at West Point. Two offiees of 
great importance to the discipline of the corps of cadets were to be filled from: 
its own ranks. The order of the academy had suffered materially for want 
of officers in those places who would not swerve from duty out of deference to 
the public opinion, the persuasions or threatenings of their fellows. Two ca- 
‘dets were selected, who had recently become professors of religion. They 
were assailed with all manner of influence to induce them to relax in favour 
of certain indulgences to which a portion of the corps had been accustomed 
at the hands of their predecessors. I need not say they mildly, but firmly 
held to their duty. One day, as they were leading out the companies to 
which they were attached, for evening parade, I said to an officer of the insti- 
tution who had been chiefly instrumental in their selection: “Why have you 
chosen these cadets for such places? One of them, indeed, has a fine soldierly 
appearance; but the other is just the contrary, and has nothing of the soldier 
about him.” “Why (said he), the truth is, we required those who would do 
their duty without regard to the wishes and expectations of others, or to the 
custom that has been prevalent in the corps; and we knew they would he 
firm.” I never heard of this confidence being disappointed. 


330 LECTURE XI. 


of vice and poverty, in crowded cities, in cold winter, hunting 
up the wretched subjects of disease and pollution, for the 
purpose of relieving and reclaiming then? Who put them- 
selves to the painful work of begging for the poor, and after 
bearing all the extreme unpleasantness of such a task, finish 
their labour in the careful distribution of their hard earned 
alms, asking no recompense but that of doing good ? 

From Christians in general, turn your attention to their 
leaders. Is it not well known that when a minister of the gos- 
pel can be commended for nothing more than a moral life and 
unblemished honesty, it is considered a positive condemna- 
tion? 'T’o give him the highest praise that a Deist can pre- 
tend to, and then to say no more, is to leave his character 
under a taint. It is expected that he will be more than 
moral, and honest, and friendly. You look that he shall be 
holy; eminently pure; full of active benevolence, going 
about doing good. Prove that he is destitute of these distin- 
guished virtues, and public opinion will adjudge him unwor- 
thy of his name and profession. ‘That all ministers are not 
exemplary and devotedly holy men, only proves that the 
sacred office, like all others, is liable to be intruded on by the 
unworthy. Every body knows that such cases, instead of 
being favoured by the influence of christianity, are directly 
opposed to it. But subtract from the number of the minis- 
ters of the gospel, every one on whom the least suspicion of 
a want of virtue ever rested ; leave none, but those who at 
any Moment can obtain, from all that know them, the praise 
of being the excellent of the earth ; and what a host will 
remain of men whose lives are conspicuous examples of 
inflexible integrity and of exalted principles of purity and 
holiness; whose daily strength is laid out in efforts to benefit 
their fellow-creatures; and around whom, at the bare men- 
tion of a charge implicating their characters, will be collected 
the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, with those who have 
been lifted up out of ignorance, or reclaimed from profligacy, 


LECTURE XI. 331 


or delivered from wretchedness, in grateful defence of their 
best earthly benefactors. 

Now, for the sake of a contrast, let us turn to the lives of 
imfidels. I do not deny that there are instances of such men, 
who have led what passes for a good moral lifes; men of fair 
dealing in business, and of sober, decent habits; whom pub- 
lic opinion, the customs of society, intellectual occupations, 
and prosperous circumstances, have preserved from the | 
slavery of low propensities and criminal deeds. But what is 
there in such virtue, beyond a fair outside? Is it formed 
upon any foundation more meritorious than that of reputa- 
tion, interest, and the expectation of society? Could you 
trust its purity in the presence of strong temptation? What 
would become of it, should interest, reputation, and human 
customs, withdraw their countenance, and preach a contrary 
practice? But we speak of infidels, as a body. The fact 
that a few are singled out and marked as sober, honest, moral 
men, only proves that such cases are exceptions to the cha- 
racter of the heterogeneous body with which they are asso- 
ciated. It is a general rule, that when you say of a man 
“he is an infidel,” it is to say that he is not a moral man; 
not a benevolent man; not a person to engage in any self- 
denying labours for the purpose of doing good. This is pub- 
lic opinion, the result of a long experiment of infidelity. Its 
foundation may be seen in the whole history of criminal . 
jurisprudence ; in the records of our courts; the annals of 
our penitentiaries; the police of large cities; the inner 
chambers of the gambling house and the brothel. Cases of 
seduction, adultery, and suicide, are the authorities to which 
reference should be made for the fruits of infidelity, as gene- 
rally exhibited. 

A French writer, addressing Voltaire, asks him: “ Will 
you dare assert that it is in philosophic families we are to 
look for models of filial respect, conjugal love, sincerity in 
friendship, or fidelity among domestics? Were you disposed 
to do so, would not your own conscience, your own expe- 


332 LECTURE XI. 


rience, suppress the falsehood, even before your lips could 
utter it?” An anecdote in point is related by Fuller. A 
man of literary eminence, but an infidel, was accustomed to 
converse with a brother sceptic where they were necessarily 
heard by a pious but uneducated countryman. Afterwards, 
it came to pass that the educated infidel became an humble 
Christian. Feeling, now, a serious concern lest his conversa- 
tion should have poisoned the mind of the countryman, he 
inquired if such was the fact. “By no means,” answered 
the other ; “it never made the least impression.” “No im- 
pression! .Why you must have known that we had read 
and thought on these things much more than you had any 
opportunity of doing.” “O yes,” said the other; “but F 
knew also your manner of living. I knew that to maintain 
such a course of conduct you found it necessary to renounce 
christianity.”* 

It is well known how very seldom such a thing has occur- 
red as the detection, in any penitentiary crime, of one who 
had enjoyed the benefit, for a considerable period, of a Sun- 
day school education; although, during the last twenty 
years, millions, in Great Britain and the United States, have 
had that privilege. What if all these had been trained, with 
equal diligence, in schools of infidelity! How differently 
would the effects of the system have been marked upon the 
records of crime, and upon the peace, purity, and order 
of society ! 

The precise difference between the fruits of christianity 
and of infidelity, as exhibited in the general assembly of their 
respective professors, consists in this: There are those who 
profess to be Christians, and yet are wicked men; but they 
are wicked in direct opposition to the influence of christianity, 
as well as to the characters and influence of those with whom 
they are connected. 'There are, also, those who profess to be 
infidels, and yet are men of sobriety, and amiableness, and 
moral deportment ; but they are such, in direct Opposition to 


* Gospel its own Witness. 


LECTURE XI. 333 


the influence of infidelity, as well as to the characters and 
influence of those with whom, as infidels, they are associated. 
The former and the latter are alike exceptions to the general 
rule. 

But let us turn from infidels in general, to their teachers 
and leaders. A stream is seldom purer than its fountain. A 
river rises no higher than its source. We may consider the 
chief priests and scribes, the elders, and rulers, and cham- 
pions of infidelity, who have constructed its various creeds and 
composed its books of scripture—its Humes, and Tindals, 
and Bolingbrokes, and Paines, and Voltaires, and Rousseaus 
~—as affording, in the average of their character, a fair stand- 
ard for the measurement of the moral stature of infidels in 
general. What, then, was the moral worth of those re- 
nowned leaders in the war against christianity? Let us 
look at their principles. 

Herbert maintained that the indulgence of lust and anger 
is no more to be blamed than the thirst of a fever, or the 
drowsiness of a lethargy. 'Thus, every vicious propensity 
was licensed. Hobbes, that every man has.a right to all 
things, and may lawfully get them if he can. Thus, all 
theft was licensed. Again, that a subject may lawful ly deny 
Christ before a magistrate, although he believes Christ in his 
heart. Thus, all hypocrisy was licensed. Again, that a 
ruler is not bound by any obligation of truth or justice, and 
can do no wrong to his subjects. 'Thus, all tyrannical op- 
pression and cruelty were licensed. Again, that the civil 
law is the sole foundation of good and evil; of right and 
wrong. ‘T’hus, moral principle is as various as climate and 
country, and vice in one, may be exaited virtue in another. 
Hume maintained that self-denial, self-mortification, and 
humility, are not virtuous, but useless and mischievous ; that 
pride and self-valuation, ingenuity, eloqience, strength of 
body, &c., are virtues ; that suicide is lawful and commenda- 
ble; that adultery must be practised, if we would obtain all 
the advantages of life ; a infidelity, when known, 


334 LECTURE XI. 


is a small thing; when unknown, nothing. Bolingbroke, 
that ambition, the lust of power, avarice, and sensuality, may 
be lawfully gratified, if they can be safely gratified; that 
modesty is inspired by mere prejudice, and has its sole founda- 
tion in vanity; that man’s chief end is to gratify the appe- 
tites and inclinations of the flesh ; that “ adultery is no viola- 
tion of the law, or religion of nature; that there is no wrong 
in lewdness, except in the highest incest.”* 

These principles will suffice as specimens of infidel writers 
in regard to moral obligation. It is fair to judge men by 
their professions. Few rise above their opinions, in practice ; 
none, in heart. When one contends that he may innocently 
indulge his vicious propensities, we need not doubt that he 
does indulge them. 'These writers either believed what they 
professed, or they did not. If the latter, they were gross 
hypocrites, endeavouring to spread what they knew was 
deadly poison. If the former, then tell me what kind of 
practice, what veracity, what honesty, what chastity, or any 
other virtue, can be supposed to have dwelt in men who in 
grave, philosophical discussions could publish such  senti- 
ments to the world? Had we no other evidence of the lives 
they led, we might conclude with certainty, from these pro- 
fessed opinions, that, while one, here and there, may not have 
carried them out to their full extent, none could have been, 
in any sense, good men; while the generality must have 
been without any regard to truth; guilty of gross hypocrisy 
and dissimulation ; willing to offer any sacrifice at the shrine 
of ambition and human praise; unbridled in temper and 
passion ; seducers, adulterers, and corrupters of their fellow- 
creatures. Such is the description which, so far as any 
accounts of their private characters have been received, is 
fully sustained by facts. | | 

Hume pretended to a great diligence in search of truth, 
and spent all his powers against the gospel, and yet, says Dr. 


Johnson, “confessed that he had never read the New Testa- 
Try Stetreirbeeeve eats aba ee a. 


* See Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. 


LECTURE XI. 335 


ment with atiention.” His friend in scepticism, Adam Smith, 
considered him “as approaching as nearly to the idea of a 
perfectly wise and virtuous man as perhaps the nature of hu- 
man frailty will permit.” But since, in his estimation, female 
infidelity, when unknown, was nothing; one needs pretty posi- 
tive evidence to believe that he was specially pure.* 

Gibbon’s moral character is seen in his History of the 
Roman empire; a work full of hypocrisy, perversion, and 
impurity ; the production of a mind as unchaste, as it was 
insidious. When he could not find an occasion to insult 
christianity, he made it, by false glosses or dishonest colour- 
ings. “A rage for indecency pervades the whole work . 
but especially the last volumes. If the history were anony- 
mous, I should guess that these disgraceful obscenities were 
written by some debauchee, who having from age, or accident, 
or excess, survived the practice of lust, still indulged himself 
in its speculations ; and exposed the impotent imbecility, after 
he had lost the vigour, of the passions.”t This was no 
“arrow shot at a venture.” 


* That Hume was virtuous, without chastity, is evident from his essays. 
They contain passages, by way of wit or illustration) not only gratuitously 
introduced, but forced in by a mere amateur taste of the writer, which a chaste 
mind would not have thought of, and a man of chaste habits and principles 
would have rejected, as both polluting to his pages and disgraceful to his cha- 
racter. I cannot believe that one who could venture on such sentences before 
the public eye, and show such pleasure and evident facility in grovelling inde- 
cencies of writing, was free from unclean practice where no public eye was 
to be encountered. And still, in Adam Smith’s opinion, he may have been 
“as perfectly virtuous as the nature of human frailly would permit”. What 
exceptions are included under this last clause, who can say? In an infidel’s 
creed, virtue has no more quarrel with unchasteness, than in the creed of the 
Spartans, it had with theft. Among the latter, nothing was required to make 
stealing virtuous but concealment, Among the virtuosi of infidelity, what 
more is required to establish the innocence of impurity ? 

The person who put out an edition of Hume’s Essays in this country, dedi- 
eating it to the president of the United States, and lauding Hume and his 
principles to the skies, showed very plainly how he had profited by his 
favourite volume, at least by, the Essay in defence of Suicide.—He killed 
himself by drunkenness ! | 4 
t Porson, 


36 LECTURE Xi. 


What grass hypocnsy and lymg pervade the wrungs af 
Herbert, Hobbes, Shaftesbary, Woolson, Tindal, Collins, 
Blount, Chubh, and Bolmgbroke! Qne while abey ae 
Sincerest desire thai the gospel may be promoted. Al another 
me, they are sooiiimg af @s essential doctmmes 5 chammme Hs 
Faunder with imposture; and dihventiy lsbounme i desrey 
st. Hobbes affirms that the scmpmares ave the vase af Gad, 
and the joundsmon of all oblzanoen; and yet that all relma 
is mi@icalous. Shafiesbary says thet 2 Sb ouumbke @ 
represent the saspel as a frend; that he hopes ms enemacs wall 
be reconciled 20 , and ms imends, poze more lnvhiy; and 
yet he represents salvation 2s mdhcologs > Msmusies that dhe 
denens of Chmst were those of decp amimon, and bs mal 
and spit savage and persecuume; that the scmpters were 
an artful Invention for mercenary purposes. Collis protests 
that none are farther from bone enmeared @ the came af 
infidelity ; thet be writes jor the homow of Jesus and the 
defence of christianity; i adwence the Mesushshp and 
truth of the holy Jesus, “i whom he says, “be 2iery for 
ever and ever, amen 7 2nd yet be casts the most scumlons 
TeGechoms on this holy One, cumpares the saspels a Gal 
lverian tales, says they are fob of absordines, and est be 
rejected, and the authority of Jesus alonr with them* 

Sach are a few examples of the honesty of sach me 
What if Camstiams shonld thus fiater midciny, and mext 
revien ? When would thar opponents cease exposinether 
hypocmsy 2 (“The best of infidel writers comnct be Gated on 
the score ef veracity, when christianity is m@ questan_ Tx 


lawial by their Humes and Gitbons im this controversy. 
One of their own fraternity may here be allowed a testify. 
~ If” says Roussean, + our philosophers were 2bie 19 dissower 
wath, which of them would imerst et aa? 


* Dweit on infiéd Philosopby 


LECTURE XI. 337 


There is not one among them who would not prefer his 
own error to the truth discovered by another. Where is the 
philosopher, who, for his own glory, would not willingly 
deceive the whole human race?” I need not spend time, 
after all that has been exhibited, in showing that such leaders 
in infidelity have evinced no spirit of benevolence, no 
disposition todabour for the benefit of their fellow-creatures ; 
but on the contrary, have lived unto themselves, and almost 
without exception, cultivated the coldest selfishness. 

But to speak more directly of the morals of leading infi-’ 
dels. Bolingbroke was a libertine of intemperate habits and 
unrestrained lust. Temple was a corrupter of all that came 
near him, given up to ease and pleasure. Emerson, an 
eminent mathematician, was “rude, vulgar, and frequently 
immoral.” “Intoxication and profane language were familiar 
to him. ‘Towards the close of life, being afflicted with the 
stone, he would crawl about the floor on his hands and 
knees, sometimes praying, sometimes swearing.” The 
morals of the Earl of Rochester are well known. Godwin 
was a lewd man by his own confession, as well as the 
unblushing advocate of lewdness. Shaftesbury and Collins, 
while endeavouring to destroy the gospel, partook of the 
Lord’s Supper, thus professing christian faith for admission 
to office! “Woolston was a gross blasphemer. Blount 
solicited his sister inlaw to marry him ; and being refused, 
shot himself. Tindal was originally a protestant, then turned 
papist, then protestant again, merely to suit the times; and 
was at the same time infamous for vice in general, and the 
total want of principle. He is said to have died with this 
prayer in his mouth: ‘If thereisa God, I desire that he 
may have mercy on me.’ Hobbes wrote his Leviathan to 
serve the cause of Charles L; but finding him fail of success, 
he turned it to the defence of Cromwell, and made a merit 
of this fact to the usurper: as Hobbes himself unblushingly 
declared to Lord Clarendon.”* Need I describe Voltaire ?7— 


* Dwight on nr Philosophy. 
z 


338 LECTURE XI. 


prince of scoffers, as Hume was prince of sceptics; in 
childhood, initiated into infidelity; in boyhood, famous for 
daring blasphemy ; in manhood, distinguished for a malig- 
nant, violent temper, for cold-blooded disruptions of all the 
ties and decencies of the family circle, for the ridicule of 
whatever was affecting, and the violation of whatever was 
confidential! Ever increasing in duplicity and hypocritical 
management, with age and practice; those whom his wit 
attracted and his buffoonery amused, were either disgusted or 
polluted by his loathsome vices. Lies and oaths, in their 
support, were nothing to his maw. Those whom he openly 
ealled his friends, he took pains secretly to calumniate ; 
flattering them to their faces, ridiculing and reviling them 
behind their backs. Years only added stiffness to the 
disgusting features of his impiety, coldness to his dark 
malignity, and fury to his impetuous temper. 'Throughout 
life, he was given up “to work all uncleanness with greedi- 
ness.” Such was the witty Voltaire, who, in the midst of 
his levity, had feeling and seriousness enough to wish he 
had never been born. 

What shall we say of J. J. Rousseau ?—a thief, and liar, and 
debauched profligate, by his own “Confession.” Educated a 
protestant, he turned papist for “subsistence;” and afterwards 
professed protestantism again at Geneva, that he might enjoy 
the rights of citizenship, while all the while he was a foul- 
mouthed infidel. He began life as an apprentice. Having 
tobbed his master and others, he fled and became a footman, in 
which capacity, having again acted the thief, he tried to swear 
the crime on a maid-servant, who lost her place by his villany. 
Stealing he never abandoned, however abandoned himself. 
Late in life, he said: “I have been a rogue, and am so still, 
for trifles which I had rather take than ask for.” Of his 
intercourse with vile women ; how he took advantage of the 
hospitality of friends to ruin the characters of those who re- 
ceived him kindly; how he coldly committed, one by one, 
the offsprings of his base connexions to the charity of the 


LECTURE XI. 339 


public, that he might be spared their trouble and have room 
for more; how utterly devoid was this talented infidel of all 
natural affection, as well as all decency; my lecture is too 
modest to relate. To use his own language, guilty without 
remorse, he soon became so without measure. Such was the 
man whom infidels have delighted to honour. The friends 
of Christ have reason to thank him for saying, “I cannot 
believe the gospel.” “For what communion hath light with 
darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial 2” 
Nothing but the circulation attempted, of late, to be given 
to the scurrilous writings of Paine, induces me to descend 
low enough amidst “the offscouring of all things,’ to speak 
of the life of that miserable man. . His first wife is said to 
have died by ill usage. His second was rendered so misera- 
ble by neglect and unkindness, that they separated by mutual 
agreement. His third companion, not his wife, was the victim 
of his seduction, while he lived upon the hospitality of her 
husband. Holding a place in the excise of England, he was 
dismissed for irregularity ; restored, and dismissed again for 
fraud, without recovery. Unable to get employment where 
he was known, he came to this country, commenced politician, 
and pretended to some faith in christianity. Congress gave 
him an office, from which, being soon found guilty of a breach 
of trust, he was expelled with disgrace.* The French revolu- 


* The statement in the text, the author is informed, is not precisely accurate. 
Paine was not expelled from his office; but resigned it, to avoid expulsion. 
The author is much indebted to the Hon. William Jay, for the following 
valuable extract from a document found among the papers of his father, the 
Hon. John Jay. The document was written while Mr. Jay was Minister to 
Spain, about the year 1780, and was an introduction to an intended history _ 
of his Spanish negotiations. The annexed extract would make a valuable 
page in a history of Paine. 

“Tt is proper to observe that Mr. Deane, in consequence of his recall, returned 
to America in 1778; and that on his arrival, Congress went into an inquiry 
into his conduct. Mr. Deane published a paper in the Philadelphia Gazette, 
containing strictures on the delays of Congress respecting his affairs, and 
heavy accusations against Mr. Arthur Lee, to whose machinations he attri- 
buted the conduct of Congress towards him. This publication caused a ferment 


340 LECTURE XI. 


tion allured him to France. Habits of intoxication made him 
a disagreeable inmate in the house of the American minister, 
where out of compassion he had been received as a guest. 
During all this time, his life was a compound of ingratitude 
and perfidy, of hypocrisy and avarice, of lewdness and 


throughout America, and very great heats in Congress. The public papers 
teemed with publications for and against Mr. Deane and Mr. Lee. Among 
the writers for the latter was a Thomas Paine, an Englishman, who had been 
a hackney writer in London, and on his arrival in America, was employed by 
Aikin in compiling and correcting papers for his magazine. In this capacity 
his attachment to the American cause became suspected. He struck out several 
passages in papers composed by Dr. Witherspoon, as being too free. He 
afterwards became attached to some leading men who were most zealous for 
American Independence. He published a pamphlet on that subject, called 
Common Sense, and obtained much credit with the people for it. He was 
afterward made Secretary to the committee for foreign affairs; and when 
General Washington was retreating before the enemy in Jersey, and the 
minds of many were filled with apprehensions, he was again so suspected, 
as that Congress became uneasy lest the Committee’s papers in his custody, 
should fall into the enemy’s hands, and took their measures accordingly. The 
success at Trenton gave things a new aspect, and new courage to Paine. 
“On the present occasion, his zeal for his employers carried him too far. 
The official papers had brought him acquainted with the state of American 
affairs at Versailles; and in his paper of the 2d January, he very imprudently 
inserted the following paragraph: ‘If Mr. Deane, or any Other gentleman, 
will procure an order from Congress to inspect an account in my office, or any 
of Mr. Deane’s friends in Congress will take the trouble of coming themselves, 
I will give him or them my attendance, and show them in a hand writing 


which Mr. Deane is well acquainted with, that the supplies he so pompously | 


. s 
plumes himself upon, were promised and engaged, and that as a present, 
before he even arrived in France,’ &c. 


“The Minister of France, Mr. Gerard, being aware of the consequences 


which would result from these assertions, and feeling very sensibly how much 
the honour of France was wounded by a supposition of her having given 
gratuitous aid to America, contrary to her assurances to Britain, did on the 
Sth January, 1779, present a memorial to Congress referring to this publica- 
tion, denying the assertions they contained, and representing the propriety of 
their being disowned by Congress. The day following, the memorial was 
considered, and various debates, not proper to be specified here, ensued. Paine 
and the printer were ordered to attend at the bar of the House. The former 
confessed himself the author, and the latter the publisher, of the paper in 
question. Many motions were made, debated and rejected, before the house 
adopted the resolutions which finally took place. The subject was interesting 
to the public, to the house, and particularly to the friends of the parties in 


LECTURE XI. 341 


adultery. In June, 1809, the poor creature died in this country. 
The lady in whose house he lived relates that ‘‘he was daily 
drunk, and, in his few moments of soberness, was always 
quarreling with her, and disturbing the peace of the family.” 
At that time “he was deliberately and disgustingly filthy.” 
He had an old black woman for his servant, as drunken as her 
master. He accused her of stealing his ram; she retaliated 
by accusing him of being an old drunkard. They would lie 
on the same floor, sprawling, and swearing, and threatening 
to fight, but too intoxicated to engage in battle. He removed, 
afterwards, to various families, continuing his habits, and 
paying for his board, only when compelled. Jn his drunken 
fits, he was. accustomed to talk about the umnoortality of the 
soul.“ Probably much of his book against the-inspiration of 
the scriptures was inspired by his cups. Such was the author 
of “the Age of Reason ;” such the apostle of mob-infidelity. 
Unhappy man! Neither he, nor Rousseau, nor Voltaire, is 
dead, except in the flesh. Their immortal souls are thinking 
as actively, at least, as ever. We and they will stand, on the 
same great day, before the bar of God. How awful, in refer- 
ence to such despisers and scoffers, is that description: “Be- 
hold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, 
and they also which pierced him.” 

ILl. We proceed to speak, in the last place, of the fruits of 
christianity, as displayed in the deaths of its genuine disci- 
ples, in contrast with those connected with infidelity. 

‘There is no question to which the testimony of the death- 
bed is so legitimately applicable, as that between infidelity 
and christianity; not only because the hour of death ig 


specially to be gelied on, as an hour of dispassionate and con- 


difference, as well as Mr. Paine’s patrons; and, as is always the case on 

such occasions, more warmth than prudence took place. The majority, how- 

ever, were of opinion that Paine had prostituted his office to party purposes, 

‘and therefore ought to be discharged. This did not long remain a secret to 

him, and to avoid that disgrace he resigned.” 

_ P.S. Mr. Jay was a member of Congress at the time of the above occurences, 
* Cheetham’s Life of Paine. 


342 LECTURE Xi. 


scientious judgment; but, particularly, because it is one of 
the precious promises of the gospel, that true believers shall 
find the sting of death taken away, and experience rich 
consolation and support, when heart and fiesh are failing. 
Infidelity, also, has published her promises in relation to the 
trial of death; and her disciples are not a little diposed to 
boast how confidently and fearlessly they could meet the 
king of terrors. Let us consult experience on this head. 
Have Christians experienced the fulfilment of the promises on 
which they trusted? Have infidels made good their boasts ? 
With regard to christians, it is a most impressive fact that 
such a thing has never been known as any one being 
sorry, in the hour of death, that he had embraced the gospel 
of Christ. We have often seen and heard of persons, whe 
had spent their days in the careless neglect of religion, most 
bitterly lamenting, when they found themselves near to 
eternity, that they had not been devoted Christians. It is 
invariably the case that genuine Christians, when they look 
back on their lives, from the verge of the grave, are sorry that 
all their days had not been spent in a much more zealous 
consecration to the service of Christ. Professors of religion 
are not unfrequently unhappy when they come to die; not 
because they are, or have been Christians, but only because 
they see reason to fear that they have not been real Christians. 
‘This unhappiness arises from the consciousness of being too 
much like those who reject the gospel; too little under the » 
influence of its spirit; too much under the influence of 
a practical unbelief. And they seek consolation, not by 
endeavouring to banish the gospel from their minds, but 
by pressing to the feet of Jesus, and seeking to have their 
hearts filled by his spirit. But among all that ever named 
the name of Jesus, from the death of the martyred Stephen, 
to the present hour; the millions upon millions of Christians, 
who have died under all manner of tortures, and in all man- — 
ner of circumstances, calculated to try the strength of their 
faith ; not a philosopher or peasant ; not a noble ora beggar q 


LECTURE XI. 343 


not a man, woman, or child; was ever known to repent that 
his preparation to die was that of the faith of Christ. 

On the contrary, it has been the invariable effect of the 
religion of Christ that those who, in the days of health, were 
evidently devoted to its spirit and duties, when death ap- 
proached, have been enabled to await the event with an hum- 
ble, submissive, and cheerful mind, keeping a confident eye 
“unto Jesus,” as the Finisher, as well as Author of their 
faith. They have felt it to be their most precious, their un- 
speakable consolation that they had been persuaded to be 
Christians.. Nothing did they look back to with such thank- 
fulness, as that, instead of having lived in indifference or 
infidelity, they had lived a life of faith upon the Son of God. 
They have felt that however solemn and, to the flesh, painful, 
was death, to them it was not gloomy nor appalling, nor any 
thing to be lamented; but only a short valley in the way to 
their everlasting and blissful rest with God on high. 'The 
most timid by nature, have stepped down without fear or 
doubt, believing in Jesus, and walking by faith. The affee- 
tionate parent has found such an accession of strength, in 
the act of separation from a beloved and helpless family, as 
to be enabled cheerfully to take the last look, and leave his 
fatherless children with God. The young man, in the prime 
and promise of his years, with every thing that earth could 
give to make life desirable, has had the prospect of a better 
inheritance presented to his mind with such assurance, that 
he had a strong desire “to depart, and be with Christ.” The 
nearer Christians have come to eternity, and the sharper the 
trial of their faith, the nearer have they drawn to Christ ; 
the more closely have they embraced his cross; the more | 
necessary has seemed his death for their sins; the more 
precious and full of glory the whole plan of redemption. 
Such is the medium statement of the testimony furnished by 
the death-beds of the disciples of Christ, when disease or 
_ the suddenness of departure has not prevented them from 
all testimony whatever. 


344 LECTURE XI. 


But, in innumerable instances, the facts are much more 
positive. It is frequently the case that dying Christians, as 
they draw near to eternity, seem to catch the song and share 
the bliss of heaven. Their faith not only delivers them 
from gloom and fear, but fills them with joy and triumph. 
They are not only supported, but exalted ; unspeakably hap- 
pier in the agonies of death, than ever they were in the 
vigour of health. As the body sinks, the spirit rises in 
strength of faith and confidence of approaching glory. A 
smile of joy plays upon the death struck countenance. The 
tenderest affection, and the most benevolent interest for all 
around them; earnest prayer that sinners may come to 
Jesus, and that his gospel may be embraced in all the world, 
occupy their latest moments. They die, thanking God, who 
giveth them the victory through Jesus Christ. 

This is no picture of imagination. It is drawn from facts 
which the lecturer has frequently had the privilege of wit- 
nessing ; facts such as have been often repeated in the obser- 
vation of all whose duty has led them often to visit and con- 
verse with the dying, on the subject of religion; facts of 
which the domestic history of the gospel, in all ages, is full, 
and of which no effrontery can attempt a denial. Paul, in 
the near view of a painful death, exclaimed: “Iam now 
ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 
I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I 
have kept the faith; henceforth, there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all 
them also that love his appearing.”* Polycarp, when they 


would have nailed him to the stake, said: “Let me remainas — 


Jam; for he who giveth me strength to sustain the fire, wil) 
enable me also, without your securing me with nails, to remain 
unmoved in the fire.” Then, being bound for a burnt offering, 
he exclaimed: “O Father, I bless thee that thou hast counted 


; 


ee ee 


me worthy of this day and this hour to receive my portion — 


* 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7, 8. 


LECTURE XI. 345 


in the cup of Christ.” Bilney, putting his finger into the 
flame of a candle, on the night before he was burned, repeat- 
ed that promise: “When thou walkest through the fire, it 
shall not burn thee ;” and said: «T constantly believe that, 
howsoever the stubble of. this body shall be wasted by it, yet 
my soul shall be purged thereby ; a pain for the time, where- 
on, notwithstanding, followeth joy unspeakable.” Hooper, 
going to the stake, being addressed by a papist in the lan- 
guage of condolence, answered : “Be sorry for thyself, and 
lament thine own wickedness ; for I am well, I thank God, | 
and death, to me, for Christ’s sake, is welcome.” Bishop 
Bedell, apprehending a speedy dissolution, assembled his 
family, and, with many other words, declared: “ Knowing 
that I must shortly put off this my tabernacle, I know also 
that I have a building of God, a house not made with hands, 
eterna] in the heavens. Therefore to me, to live is Christ, 
and to die is gain, which increases my desire, even now, to 
depart and be with Christ, which is far better. I ascend to 
my Father and your Father, to my God and your God, 
through the all-sufficient merits of Jesus Christ, my Re- 
deemer, who ever lives to make intercession for me.” 
Fletcher’s continual exclamation, while dying, was, “ God 
is love! G'od is love!” He panted for words to express 
what he felt in the utterance of that precious truth. Finley, 
in the act of departing, used such language as this: “A 
Christian’s death is the best part of his existence.” “Blessed 
be God, eternal rest is at hand.” “The Lord hath given me 
the victory. I exult; I triumph. Now I know that it is 
wmpossible that faith should not triumph over earth and hell.” 
“Lord Jesus, into thy hands I commit my spirit ; I do it with 
confidence ; I do it with full assurance. I know that thou. 
wilt keep that which I have committed to thee”* Said the 
dying Payson: “ While my body is thus tortured, the soul 
is perfectly, perfectly happy and peaceful, more than I can 


* See “Deaths of Hume and Finley Compared,” by Dr. Mason; in the 
Tract, No. 190, of the American Pree ey 


346 LECTURE XI. 


possibly express to you. I lie here and feel these convul- 
sions extending higher and higher, without the least uneasi- 
ness; but my soul is filled with joy unspeakable. I seem to 
swim in) a-flood of glory, which God pours down upon me. 
And I know, I know that my happiness is but begun. I can- 
not doubt that it will last: for ever.” And what shall I say 
more? For the time would fail to tell of Latimer, and Rid- 
ley, and Hooker; of Romaine; and Newton, and Scott; of 
Swartz, and Buchanan, and Martyn; of Oberlin and Rich- 
mond; of Evarts: and Cornelius; leaders in’ the faith, “of 
whom the world was not worthy.” But should we go into 
the more retired walks of Christian life, and consult the 
annals of every village church, and gather out the examples 
of holy patience in suffering, and sublime faith, and deep 
humility, and joy unspeakable in dying, which the eye of 
God has seen among the poor of this world, in every age, 
since the death of Christ! what a cloud of witnesses would 
compass us about, uniting their joyful testimony to Jesus as 
“the resurrection and the life ;” to the gospel as in all its 
promises, faithful and “ worthy of all acceptation !”* 


* A beautiful exhibition of the effects of the gospel is found in the Narra- 
tive of the Loss of the Kent East Indiaman, in 1825. The account is given 
by Major M’Gregor, who was not rendered the less capable of calmly observ- 
ing the events he has recorded, or of firmly bearing his part in the dangers of 
that awful crisis, in consequence of having his soul kept in peace by the pre- 
cious hopes of a disciple of Christ. ; 

While the ship was burning below, and the magazine was every moment 
expected to blow up, and not a soul, out of more than six hundred, had a 
thought but of perishing either by fire or the tempest; while some were stand- 
ing in silent resignation, or stupid insensibility, and others were given up to 
the most frantic despair; while “some on their knees were earnestly implo- 
ring with significant gesticulations, and in noisy supplications, the mercy of 
Him whose arm, they exclaimed, was’ at length outstretched to smite them ;” 
and others had sullenly seated themselves directly over the magazine, that by 
means of the expected explosion a speedier termination might be put to their 
sufferings ; “Several of the soldiers’ wives and children, who had fled for 
temporary shelter into the after cabins, on the upper decks, were engaged in 
prayer, and in reading the scriptures with the ladies, some of whom were ena- 
bled, with wonderful self-possession, to offér to others those spiritual consola- | 


LECTURE XI. 347 


Now, let us turn to infidelity. What confirmation has 
resulted, from the death-beds of infidels, to the truth of their 
faith, and its ability to support and comfort the souls of its 
dying disciples? Ah! the change is like being translated 
from the beauty, and fragrance, and joyful promise of spring, 
into the coldness, and barrenness, and gloominess, of winter. 

Has infidelity ever exhibited a solitary example of that 
high and delightful consolation ; that triumphant, unspeaka- 
ble joy on the brink of the grave, of which christianity ean 
cite innumerable instances? It seems almost ridiculous to 
be at pains enough to answer sucha question. Infidelity has 
no doctrine, no promise, out of which such a delightful frame 
of mind could grow. Infidels feel themselves so infinitely 
removed from it, that it seems to them, in the distance, as 
something incomprehensible, or visionary, or fanatical. But 
are there not examples of such persons dying without fear? 
Unquestionably there are; but how few of them have any 
application to the present argument! he great majority 
of them have been cases in which the lethargy or delirium 
occasioned by disease prevented the patient from being sensi- 
ble of his condition ; or his death succeeded so immediately 
after the symptoms of his danger, as to allow no time for the 
consideration of his eternal interests; or his friends took 
care that he should be kept in ignorance of the fatal cha- 
racter of his disorder, until it was too late for any thing but 
insensibility and dissolution; or else the unhappy infidel, 


tions, which a firm and intelligent trust in the Redeemer of the world appeared 
at this awful hour to impart to their own breasts. The dignified deportment 
of two young ladies in particular formed a specimen of natural strength of 
mind, finely modified by christian feeling, that faiied not to attract the notice 
and admiration of every one who had an opportunity of witnessing it. One 
young gentleman, having calmly asked my opinion of the state of the ship, I 
told him that I thought we should be prepared to sleep that night in eternity; 
and I shall never forget the peculiar fervour with which he replied, as he press- 
ed my hand in his, ‘ My heart is filled with the peace of God.” Comment 
would only mar such a beautiful testimony to the blessedness of a gospel 
faith. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee; 
because he trusteth in thee.” Is, xxvi. 3. 


348 LECTURE XI. 


suspicious of his steadfastness when the trial should arrive, 
surrounded himself with such companions as would guard 
his bedside from the approach of any minister of better con 

solations, and keep his mind amused with trifles, and his 
pride stimulated with the ambition of holding out to the last. 
Undoubtedly there have been cases to which none of these 
specifications are applicable ; cases of infidels, who, in quiet- 
ness, with their intellects in sound and wakeful exercise, and 
with a knowledge of their nearness to eternity, have died 
without the manifestation of alarm. But this has nothing to 
do with our point. We could speak of multitudes who be- 
lieved christianity, and had no idea that they were prepared 
to meet their God; but, nevertheless, died without alarm. 
The question is, does infidelity sustain and comfort its disci- 
ples in the hour of death? It can hardly be necessary to 
assert, that whatever calmness any of them may have mani- 
fested had no manner of connexion with their infidel princi- 
ples. They might have had the same, as well without 
infidelity, as with it. They did not pretend to draw strength 
and peace from its barren breasts. What was called, in their 
case, resignation, was not the offspring of their principles, as 
infidels, but of their doom, as mortals, They had to die, 
and there was no use in complaining ; this is about the 
amount of all their consolation. Most gladly would they 
have entreated to live, could they have supposed that entreaty 
would have succeeded. Death has never been regarded by 
such men, except as a necessary evil in every respect, only 
to be submitted to, because irrevocably appointed. Such is 
the very best account we can give of the testimony of the 
death-beds of infidels. It is dreary, desolate, cold. It whis- 
pers something that should go to the heart of a sceptic. Its 
dismal negativeness is positive condemnation. Where, in all 
this region of emptiness, is the sweet serenity, the cheerfal 
resignation, the positive pleasure and happiness in prospect 
of death, which so generally attend the dying Christian ? 
Where is your parallel, in a single infidel, to the joyful wel- 


a 
&! 


LECTURE XI. 349 


come which death has received, in a million cases, at the 
lips of the followers of Christ, when they have felt themselves 
almost home, and, in view of heaven, have longed to depart 
and be with Christ ? 5 

No case of a dying unbeliever has been made so much of, 
by way of a set-off to the testimony of Christians, as that of 
David Hume. The evident object of Adam Smith, the nar- 
rator, is to put up his friend for a comparison with believers. 
Gibbon says: “He died the death of a philosopher.” No- 
thing can be more affected, more evidently contrived for 
stage effect; or, even on infidel principles, more disgraceful 
to such a mind as Hume’s, than the manner of his death, 
according to the account given by his friend. He knew his 
end was near. Whether he was to be annihilated, or to be 
for ever happy, or for ever miserable, was a question involved 
on his own principles, in impenetrable darkness, It was the 
tremendous question to be then decided. Reason and decency 
demanded that it should be seriously contemplated. How 
does he await the approach of eternity? Said Chesterfield 
(an infidel also): “ When one does see death near, let the 
best or the worst people say what they please, it is a serious 
consideration.” Does Hume treat it as a serious considera 
tion? He is diverting himself! With what? With pre 
paring his Essay in defence of Suicide for a new edition ; 
reading books of amusement ; and sometimes with a game 
atcards! He is diverting himself again! With what next? 
With talking silly stuff about Charon and his boat, and 
the river Styx! Such area philosopher’s diversions, where 
common sense teaches other people to be, at least, grave and 
thoughtful. But why divert himself? Why turn off his 
mind from death? Why the need of his writings, and his 
cards, and his books of amusements, and his trifling conversa- 
tions? Was he afraid to let his mind settle down quietly and 
alone to the contemplation of all that was at stake in the 
crisis before him? Whatever the explanation of his levity, 
it was ill-timed, out of taste mere got up; an affected plece 


350 LECTURE XI. 


of over-acting, intended for posthumous fame, to say the best 
of it. He died “as a fool dieth.” Take his own views, as 
thus expressed, at the end of his Natural History of Reli- 
gion: “The comfortable views exhibited by the belief of' 
futurity are ravishing and delightful. But how quickly 
vanish on the appearance of its terrors, which keep a more 
firm and durable possession of the human mind? The 
whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery. 
Doubt, uncertainty, suspense of judgment, appear the only 
result of our most accurate scrutiny concerning this subject.” 
In his own estimation, then, futurity has its terrors. Doubt, 
inexplicable mystery, hung over his future destiny! Whether 
he was not to be a child of hell for ever, his most accurate 
scrutiny could only suspend his judgment! In this tremen- 
dous suspense, he plays cards, as it were, on his coffin lid ! 
jests about ridiculous fables, as he steps down to the momen 
tous uncertainties, but eternal realities, of the future! If a 
finger had been about to receive its sentence, whether to be 
amputated or not, he would at the least have been more 
grave. How far such a death-bed scene is honourable to 
philosophy or infidelity, or fit to be compared with that of 
millions of Christians, I need not say. But this is the fairest 


aspect of the matter on the side of infidelity.* 

* ‘There is reason to believe that, however unconcerned Hume may have 
seemed in the presence of his infidel friends, there were times when, being 
diverted neither by companions, nor cards, nor his works, nor books of amuse- 
ment, but left to himself and the contemplation of eternity, he was any thing 
but composed and satisfied. 

The following account was published many years ago in Edinburgh, where 
he died. It is not known to have been ever contradicted, “ About the end of 
1776, a few months after the historian’s death, a respectable looking woman, 
dressed in black, came into the Haddington stage coach, while passing through 
Edinburgh. The conversation among the passengers, which had been inter- 
rupted for a few minutes, was speedily resumed, which the lady soon found to 
be regarding the state of mind persons were in at the prospect of death. An 
appeal was made, in defence of infidelity, to the death of Hume, as not only 
happy and tranquil, but mingled even with gayety and humour. To this the 
lady said: ‘Sir, this is all you know about it; I could tell you another tale.’ 

‘Madam,’ replied the gentleman, ‘I presume I have as good information as 


LECTURE XI. 351 


We said, the case could not be mentioned of any one 
having regretted, on his death-bed, that he had lived a 


you can have on this subject, and I believe that what I have asserted regard- 
ing Mr. Hume has never been called in question.’ The lady continued: ‘Sir, 
Iwas Mr. Hume’s housekeeper for many years, and was with him in his 
last moments; and the mourning I now wear was a present from his rela- 
tives for my attention to him on his death-bed; and happy would I have been 
if I could have borne my testimony to the mistaken opinion that has gone 
abroad of his peaceful and composed end. I have, sir, never, till this hour, 
opened my mouth on this subject; but I think it a pity the world should be 
kept in the dark on so interesting a topic. It is true, sir, that when Mr. 
Hume’s friends were with him he was cheerful, and seemed quite uncon- 
cerned about his approaching fate; nay, frequently spoke of it to them in a 
Jocular and playful way; but when he was alone, the scene was very differ- 
ent; he was any thing but composed; his mental agitation was so great at 
times as to occasion his whole bed to shake. He would not allow the candles 
to be put out during the night, nor would he be left alone for a minute. I had 
always to ring the bell for one of the servants to be in the room, before he 
would allow me to leave it. He struggled hard to appear composed, even 
before me. But to one who attended his bedside for so many days and nights, 
and witnessed his disturbed sleeps and ‘still more disturbed wakings; who 
frequently heard his involuntary breathings of remorse and frightful startings; 
it was no difficult matter to determine that all was not right within. This con- 
tinued and increased until he became insensible. I hope in God I shall never 
witness a similar scene.’ ”—Christian Observer, vol. xxxi. p. 665. 

There is internal evidence of truth attached to the above. Hume had no 
opinions with regard to God, or the future, except that all was doubtful. 
Whether there was a God, a future state, a hell, or annihilation, he did not 
profess to know. The future had its terrors, he acknowledged. To him they 
were terrors of darkness and uncertainty. He spoke of “the calm, though 
obscure regions of philosophy.” He called the whole question as to man’s 
future destiny, “a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery.” All he could 
arrive at was, “doubt, wncertainty, suspense of judgment.” In this state of 
mind, nothing could have been more forced or unnatural than the levity de- 
scribed by Smith. That was his stage-dress. If aman lay a hundred pounds 
upon a game, he is anxious till the uncertainty as to its fate be removed. 
But Hume knew that his aut, ror EVER, was at stake; and that he was uncon- 
cerned, unanxious, when not diverted, is incredible. On the other hand, the 
account presented above is exactly what nature and reason would expect from 
the state of mind in which the philosopher described himself, as to all that 
awaited him. Not to be penetrated with anxiety of the most painful kind, 
when a few hours were to decide whether he was to be annihilated, or to be 
carried to the judgment seat of God, and find all that he had ridiculed in the 
gospel true, and be condemned to eternal misery—a destiny which, on his 


° 


352 LECTURE XI. 


Christian. We now say, that cases innumerable have 
occurred of persons bitterly lamenting, when dying, that they 
had lived in infidelity. Every where, such instances have 
occurred. ‘They are too notorious to need citation. The 
boldest unbelievers have furnished the most numerous 
examples. ‘They have felt every foundation removed, when 
heart and flesh began to fail. What they had boasted in 
life, they found a miserable comforter in death. The earl of 
Rochester, a scholar and a blasphemer, as deep in vice as in 
infidelity, when he approached the end of life, became a 
thorough penitent; and, to one of his former companions, 
said from his death-bed: “O, remember that you contemn 
God no longer! He is an avenging God, and will visit you 
for your sins; and will, I hope, in mercy, touch your 
conscience, sooner or later, as he has done mine. You and 
I have been friends and sinners together, a great while. 
We have been all mistaken in our conceits and opinions ; our 
persuasions have been false and groundless; therefore I pray 
God grant you repentance.” 'To those who had been drawn 
into sin, by his example and encouragement, he said: “T 
warn them no more to make a mock of sin, or contemn the 
pure and excellent religion of my ever blessed Redeemer, 
through whose merits alone, I, one of the greatest of sinners, 
do yet hope for mercy and forgiveness.” 

Hobbes could never bear to talk of death. His mind was 
haunted with tormenting reflections. If his candle went 
out in the night, while he was in bed, he was in misery. 
As he descended to the grave, he said “he was about to take 
a leap in the dark.” 

Struensee, prime minister of Denmark, and Brandt, the 
companion of his disgrace and imprisonment, had both been 
poisoned by the writings and society of Voltaire ; and both, 
prospect of death, renounced infidelity with detestation, 
and embraced the gospel as all their hope. 


own principles, was as likely as any thing else—could only be accounted for 


on the Supposition that disease or friends diverted his attention from the 
decision approaching. 


LECTURE XI. 353 


Shall I lead you to the horrible spectacle of Voltaire, in 
the arms of death, and expecting in a few moments to stand 
at the bar of God. He has just returned from a feast of 
applause in the theatre, to be laid on a bed of death, in the 
agonies of an upbraiding conscience. The physician enters. 
“Doctor,” said the apostle of infidelity, with the utmost 
consternation, “I am abandoned by God and man. I will 
give you half of what I am worth, if you will give me six 
months’ life.” The physician told him he could not live six 
weeks. “'Then,” said he, “I shall go to hell.” His com- 
panions in guilt, D’Alembert, Diderot, and Marmontel, hasten 
to keep up his courage, but meet nothing but reproach and 
horror. In spite of the guard of ‘infidels about him, he 
sends for the Abbe Gautier to come as soon as possible. In 
his presence, and that of other Witnesses, he signs a recanta- 
tion of infidelity, and professes to die in the church. It is 
sent to the rector of St. Sulpice and the archbishop of Paris 
for approval. The Abbe Gautier returns with it, but cannot 
enter. Every avenue to the dying infidel is defended by 
those who had shared in his conspiracy against christianity. 
‘They want to hide his terrors and their own shame. Now 
it is, that D’Alembert, Diderot, and about twenty others, of 
like character, who beset his apartment, never approach 
him but to hear their condemnation. « Retire !” he often 
exclaims, with execrations, “it is you that have brought me 
to my present state! Begone! I could have done without 
you all; but you could not exist without me! And what a 
wretched glory have you produced me?” 'Then his con~ 
_ Spiracy comes before him, and, alternately supplicating and 
blaspheming, he complains that he is abandoned by God and 
man, and often cries out : “Oh Christ ! Oh Jesus Christ!” He 
_ ts looking on Him whom he pierced! He is drinking the 
_ cup of trembling ! the foretaste of the second death! The 
_ Mareschal de Richelieu flies from the scene, declaring it “too 
terrible to be sustained.” The physicians, thunderstruck, re- 
tire; declaring “the death of the impious man to be terrible 


— 


354 LECTURE XI. 


indeed.” One of them pronounces that “the furies of Orestes 
could give but a faint idea of those of Voltaire.” 

We shall close these awful scenes, with a few glances at 
the dying Paine. Once it was his boast that, during a 
dangerous illness, he thought with new satisfaction of having 
written the Age of Reason, and found, by experiment, that 
his principles were sufficient to sustain him in expectation of 
death. It was an empty boast! Let us see him when 
really dying. He would not be left alone night or day. If 
he could not see that some one was with him, he would 
scream till a person appeared. A female attendant more 
than once found him in the attitude of prayer. Having 
asked her what she thought of his Age of Reason, and 
being answered that, from a conviction of its evil tendency, 
she had burnt it; he wished all its readers had been as wise, 
and added: “If ever the devil had an agent on earth, [ 
have been one.” An infidel visiter said to him: “ You have 
lived like a man; I hope you will die like one.” He turned 
to others in the room, and said: “ You see what miserable 
comforters I have.” 'The woman whom he had enticed from 
her husband lamented to a neighbour her sad condition. 
“For this man,” she said, “I have given up my family and 
friends, my property and my religion; judge then of my 
distress, when he tells me that the principles he has taught 


me will not bear me out.” Well might she be distressed, — 
when she heard his exclamations. ‘He would call out, — 
during his paroxysms of distress, without intermission, ‘O — 
Lord help me, God help me, Jesus Christ help me, O Lord 


* “The nurse who attended him, being many years afterwards requested 
to wait on a sick protestant gentleman, refused, till she was assured he was 
not a philosopher; declaring, if he were, she would on no account incur the 
danger of witnessing such a scene as she had been compelled to do at the 


death of M. Voltaire.’ I received this account (adds the Right Rev. Daniel — 


Wilson) from the son of the gentleman, to whose dying bed the woman was 
invited, by a letter now in my possession.” 


The above account is abridged from the “ History of Jacobinism,” by the — 


Abbe Baruel, and has been denied by no one of the many witnesses to the 
death of Voltaire. 


LECTURE XI. 355 


help me,’ &c., repeating the same expressions without any, 
the least, variation, in a tone of voice that would alarm the 
house.”* 

And now what need be said in conclusion? You have 
seen the fruit of the trees. One produces corruption ; the 
other holiness of life. One roots up; the other nourishes 
and cherishes whatever is good around it. The spread of 
infidelity is that of vice, and disorder, and all confusion. The 
spread of christianity is that of purity, peace, and all the 
virtues of the social state. The more thoroughly an indi- 
vidual embraces infidelity, the more entirely does he become 
the slave of sin. The more perfectly he embraces the gospel, 
the more perfectly, does he become the example of whatever 
is lovely and of good report. No infidel ever rose higher 
than the chill composure of a Stoic’s firmness, in the trial of 
death. Miultitudes and the chief of infidels have, in that 
honest hour, abandoned their sentiments with horror. On 
the other hand, no Christian ever regretted, when dying, 
that he had believed the gospel; all have only wished they 
had followed it more diligently ; and, in cases innumerable, 
disciples of Christ have risen to the most triumphant emo- 
tions of joy and praise, and the most exulting assurance of 
eternal life and glory, in the very act of departing for eternity. 

Is a tree known by its fruits? hen which of these is the 
tree of life? Which looks like truth? Which is to be cut 
down, and cast into the everlasting burning ? 

The whole argument, of this and the preceding lecture, 
_ may be well concluded with an applicable and true saying of 
Hume. Being asked by a friend, to whom he used to refer 

his essays, previously to publication, whether he thought 
that, if his opinions were universally to take place, mankind 
_ would not be rendered more unhappy than they were; and 
whether he did not suppose that the curb of religion was 
necessary to human nature; “'The objections,” answered he, 
“are not without weight, but ERROR NEVER CAN PRODUCE 


* Cheetham’s Life of Paine. 


356 LECTURE XI. 


soop.” Such is precisely the text of this and the preceding 
lecture. “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?” 
“'The tree is known by its fruits,” said the Saviour. “ Error 
never can produce good,” said the man who denied him. By 
this, let the comparative merits of christianity and infidelity 
stand or fall. 

How imperative, then, is the exhortation to all professors 
of the religion of Jesus: “Let your light shine before men !” 
“Be careful to maintain good works!” “Let your conversa- 
tion be as it becometh the gospel of Christ!” To you, is 
committed the honour; on you, depends the character of 
christianity among the unbelieving and disobedient. Its most 
legible and universally imposing evidences are found in the 
living epistles of those who, under the influence of its saving 
truth, are seen devotedly “following after righteousness, godli- 
ness, faith, love, patience, meekness;” “using the world, as 
not abusing it ;” looking for death, as not fearing it ; cheerful 
in all duty, while they remain on earth; happy when the 
time comes for them to depart out of it unto the Father? Ah! 
if all that are numbered among Christians were thus radiant 
in the beauty of holiness, how soon would the whole earth 
be filled with the praise of the Lord! Then, indeed, would 
the church put on strength. Then would the gentiles come 
to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising ; all 
they that despise her should bow themselves down at the 
soles of her feet; and they should call her, “ The city of the 


Lord; the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”* 
SMES, ORTRONICS |e A 


* Isaiah, lx. 


LECTURE XII. 357 


LECTURE XII. 


SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT, AND APPLICATION TO 
OBJECTIONS. 


In the course of the preceding lectures, I have been ena- 
~ bled, by a kind Providence, blessing me with a more ade- 
quate measure of health than I anticipated, to spread before 
you a comprehensive view of the external evidences of 
christianity. Although one whole division of our forces, 
and one of no secondary consequence, has not been brought 
into the field; and of that which has been employed, several 
important subdivisions have been held in the back ground 
for want of room to display them ; enough, I trust, has been 
done to give you an impressive idea of what the strength of 
the cause must be, when all the immense variety of auxilia- 
ries composing its host are arranged together under command 
of a mind capable of using them to the best advantage. It 
would stand like the massive squares of British infantry at 
Waterloo, to which the boasting enemy rode up again and 
again, in the full confidence of sweeping them before the 
impetuosity of their charge. But “their onset and reception 
was that of a furious ocean pouring itself against a chain of 
insulated rocks.”* 

Before relinquishing our course, it is important to take a 
brief retrospect of the ground we have been over; that we 
may gather into united and co-operating force the several 
lines of argument which as yet have been employed only in 
their separate efficiency. 

After having divided the whole field of evidence into the 
two general departments of external and internal, and sepa- 
rated the former, as that to which our course would be con- 


* Scott’s Napoleon. 
0 


558 LECTURE XII. 


fined, we proceeded to lay the foundation of all our subse- 
quent reasonings by making good the AUTHENTICITY OF 
THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, and the CREDIBILITY 
OF THE HIsToRY contained therein. In reference to the 
question of authenticity, we instituted an inquiry whether 
there is sufficient evidence that the several scriptures com- 
posing the New ‘Testament were written by the men whose 
names they bear, the original apostles and disciples of Christ? 
For an answer to this, we pursued precisely the same method 
as in determining the authenticity of any other writings. The 
evidence required in such investigations was shown to be so 
unaflected by time, that whether a book be ascribed to the 
christian era or to five centuries earlier or later, a similar 
description of proof would possess a similar conclusiveness. 
‘That for the authenticity of the books of the New Testament 
was presented under the following heads: They are quoted 
or alluded to by a series of writers extending, in unbroken 
succession, from the present to the apostolic age. In the 
earliest writers of this series, as well as the later, they are 
treated with peculiar respect, as possessing an authority be- 
longing to no other books, and as conclusive in all questions 
of religion; they were collected at a very early period into a 
distinct volume; were publicly read and expounded in the 
assemblies of the primitive Christians; commentaries were 
written upon them; harmonies were formed out of them ; 
different copies were carefully compared, and versions were 
made into different languages, in the first centuries of chris- 
tianity. Hence it appeared that the agreement of the ancient 
church, as to what were the authentic books of the New 
‘Testament, was complete. and was no more imperfect among 
the various sects of heretics, than among the orthodox fathers. 
None of these several heads of evidence attach to any of those 
spurious writings commonly called Apocryphal Scriptures ; 
while the marks of the spuriousness of these can be asserted 
with regard to none of those which are esteemed as authentic. 
In confirmation of the mass of testimony, adduced in support 


LECTURE XII. 359 


of these propositions, we exhibited a most important collection 
of proofs from the writings of the early adversaries of chris- 
tianity. The style and language of the New Testament 
were spoken of, as in perfect agreement with the local and 
other circumstances of its reputed writers; as in perfect 
harmony with their known character, and with the age and 
country in which they lived; and such as could not have 
been produced in any age subsequent to theirs. In conclu- 
sion of the whole argument, we endeavoured to show that 
such was the necessity of detection, in case of a forgery, 
during the primitive centuries, that had the books in question 
been deficeient in the evidence of apostolic origin, nothing 
less than a miracle in their aid could account for their early 
and universal currency. The whole train of evidence con- 
cluded with this result: that to suppose the New Testament 
unauthentic or even questionable in this particular, is to 
resign the authenticity of every other book of the least 
‘untiquity ; yea, and the sufficiency of human testimony, in 
its most conclusive form, to establish the authenticity of any 
such work. Having come to this, it seemed no presumption 
to proceed in our subsequent lectures, as if the question of 
authenticity. were answered in the affirmative with entire 
satisfaction. | 

But in connexion with the apostolic origin, it was impor- 
tant to look into the integrity of the New Testament scrip- 
tures ; for the purpose of ascertaining to what extent they 
have been preserved without mutilation or corruption. That 
they have undergone no material alteration since they were 
first published, was inferred from the perfect: impossibility 
of such a change ; from obvious agreement among the exist- 
ing manuscripts of the New Testament; and from the har- 
inony of our present text with the numerous quotations in the 
works of early christian writers, as well as with those ancient 
translations which are still extant. 

But in laying the foundation of our subsequent argument, 
another question remained : Is the history, contained in these 


360 LECTURE XII. 


~ 


authentic writings, credible? In answer to this, we assumed _ 
that the credibility of the gospel history is to be ascertained 
precisely like that of any other history. It appeared that, in 
questions of this kind, the two great points to be proved are, 
a competency of knowledge, and trustworthy honesty, on the 
part of the historian; did he know enough to write a true 
account, and was he too honest to write any other account 
than such as he believed to be true? These points established, 
the credibility of the history is settled. The first was easily 
determined by the consideration that the amount of know- 
ledge required for the writing of the gospel history was by no 
means great; that the narrative is extremely simple and un- 
ambitious ; and that those who penned it were personal com- 
panions of Christ, and eye-witnesses of almost all they related. 
In reference to the second point to be made out, we took the 
position that there is abundant evidence that the writers of 
the gospel history were too honest to relate any thing but 
what they believed to be truth. Taking the history as written 
by St. John for a specimen, we discovered a strong internal 
evidence of the honesty of the writer in the fact that it is in 
a high degree circumstantial; and another, in the incidental 
characteristic of the writer, that he takes no pains to convince 
us of his honesty, and makes no parade about it, as if it were 
possible to be suspected; and another, in the circumstance, 
that while he could not have been ignorant that he was relat- 
ing many extraordinary and wonderful events, he betrays no 
appearance of wonder in himself, nor any expectation of 
wonder from his readers, thus evincing that he was conscious 
of narrating-events of universal notoriety. In addition to 
these striking imprints of honesty ; we perceived another, in 
the minute accuracy which distinguishes all the allusions of 
this narrative to the manners, customs, opinions, political 
events, and circumstances of the times. 

Having thus exhibited satisfactory evidence of the honesty 
of one of the writers of the gospel narrative; we produced 
seven other writers, each entirely independent of the rest, and 


LECTURE XII. 361 


possessing all the internal marks of honesty discovered in St. 
John ; all concurring in their statements so entirely that no 
contradiction can be detected; and yet with so much inci- 
dental variety, that the suspicion of a concerted scheme for 
mutual support is as unreasonable as if they had lived in 
different centuries. The fact that they were heartily interested 
in the gospel; that they so firmly believed what they wrote, 
as to have lived in zealous devotion to Christ, even to the 
sacrifice of life, was shown to be the strongest confirmation, 
instead of the least abridgement, of their united testimony. 
In their co-operating evidence, we have a proof of the honesty 
of each writer, and of the credibility of the whole body of 
facts contained in their pages, such as no history of any 
individual of the world can equal. Four histories, written 
by persons contemporaneous with the subject, are only found 
in the case before us. When it is considered that the au- 
thors were not only contemporaries but companions of the 
personage whose history is given; their mutual support and 
internal evidences of honesty afford a body of proof which, 
were their narratives untrue, would be morally impossible. 
Here, we might have left the question of credibility. But 
we proceeded to show, that to suppose these writers to have 
published what they did not believe, is to suppose that 
they acted not only without any conceivable motive, but in 
direct opposition to all the motives by which the minds of 
men are ever influenced. And finally, it was made to appear 
that the gospel history has in its support, not only all the tes- 
timony that could fairly have been expected from its enemies, 
all of them yielding at least the evidence of silence, when, 
had they been able, they would assuredly have published a 
denial ; but much stronger testimony than could fairly have 
been expected from enemies, since several of their most hos- 
tile writers positively acknowledge all the facts that are 
necessary to establish the divine authority of Jesus. But this 
was not our highest reach of testimony. We found a great 


cloud of witnesses to the truth of this history in the multi- 
30* 


362 LECTURE XII 


tudes converted to the gospel under the preaching of the 
apostles: witnesses who have this peculiar excellence, that, 
from having once been enemies, they became devoted friends, 
by the mere force of their conviction of the facts in question. 
The whole argument for credibility was finished by showing, 
from the very nature and circumstances of the history, that 
had it not been true, its currency for a single year would have 
been quite as miraculous, and more unaccountable, than any 
thing related therein. 

Having thus cleared our way to the New Testament, by 
ascertaining the authenticity of its books, and the credibility 
of its history; we were prepared to open the volume,: and 
investigate its contents. It professes to contain a revelation 
from God, communicated to mankind by the Lord Jesus and 
his apostles, as invested with a divine commission for this 
very purpose. We asked for their credentials. They refer- 
redus to their miraculous works. The appeal was confess- 
edly fair. Miracles perfectly proved, are perfect: evidence 
of divine attestation. But, before proceeding to a direct in- 
vestigation of the testimony in favour of the miracles of the 
gospel, we found it necessary, on account of the desperate 
efforts which enemies of christianity have made to. escape 
this argument, to illustrate the following preliminary truths: 
that there is nothing unreasonable or improbable in the idea 
of a miracle in proof of divine revelation ; that the miracles 
wrought for this purpose, in the first century, can be rendered 
credible to us of the nineteenth, by no other evidence than 
that of testimony; that such evidence is perfectly sufficient 
to prove a miracle ; that the testimony to the gospel miracles 
has suffered no diminution of force by increase of age; and 
that we, who are restricted to such means of conviction, are 
Situated in regard to our state of probation and moral disci- 
pline, more consistently than if we had been present when 
the miracles were wrought, and could have proved their 
reality by the test of our senses. 


From these important propositions, we proceeded to the 


” LECTURE XII. 363 


testimony in regard to THE MIRACLES OF THE GOSPEL. 
Here we might have stood upon the equitable assumption 
that, in having established the truth of the narratives, we 
had proved also the reality of the miracles, of the New Tes- 
tament; inasmuch as miraculous events are so essentially 
interwoven with many of them, that to question the latter, 
is necessarily an impeachment of the former. But as our 
object was not merely proof, but variety and fulness of proof, 
we proceeded to the fact that, the religion of the Bible having 
been established by direct appeal to miracle, in evidence of 
the divine authority of its teachers, stands alone in this res- 
pect among the various religions of mankind; after which, 
we laid out the materials of our argument under the follow- 
ing propositions. Supposing the wonderful works ascribed 
to our Lord to have really occurred, they cannot be ascribed 
to second causes, but must have been genuine miracles. 
They were of such a nature as admitted of their being 
brought at once to the test of the senses. They were per- 
formed, for the most part, in the most public manner. They 
were exceedingly numerous, and of great variety. The 
success, In every case, was instantaneous and complete. 
There is no evidence of such a thing, as an attempt on the 
part of Christ or his apostles to perform a miracle in which 
they were accused of a failure. For seventy years, the 
miraculous gifts in question continued to be exercised, and 
to be submitted to the inspection of mankind. During all 
this time, it is a matter of certainty that they underwent the 
most rigid examination from those who had every opportu- 
nity and every disposition to detect imposition. Every 
advantage was afforded the adversary by their being pub- 
lished and appealed to immediately after, and in the very 
places where, they occurred. The persons who performed 
them were of all others the least qualified, and the least likely 
either to attempt a series of counterfeit miracles, or to suc- 
ceed in passing them upon the Jewish and heathen world. 
Notwithstanding all that was done to break the constaney 


364 LECTURE XII. 


and extort the confessions of those early Christians who 
were eye-witnesses of the deeds of Jesus and his apostles ; 
none were ever known to acknowledge they had been 
deceived, or had found any thing but truth in the miracles 
-by which they were led to embrace the gospel. The benevo- 
lent character and holy effects of the miracles; the humble, 
selfdenying, unambitious spirit of those who performed 
them, are irreconcilable with the supposition of any thing 
selfish or deceitful. That they were genuine, and to the 
people of that century undeniable, we have the plainest and 
strongest confession from the primitive adversaries of Christ 
and his cause. But confessions stronger, unspeakably, are 
found in the history of great multitudes in Judea, and every 
country of heathenism, who beheld in the miracles such 
incontrovertible certainty as induced them to lay aside the 
“bitterest enmity to the gospel, and make the most painful 
sacrifices of which human nature is capable, for the sake of 
embracing the service of Jesus. If with all this evidence, 
there is not reason to rely implicitly upon the reality of the — 
gospel miracles, we are driven to believe in the most unac- | 
countable violations of the laws of nature, of truth, andof ~ 
common sense, as necessary to account for the singular events 
connected with their performance, and for their universal 
acknowledgment in the era of their first publication. Hence 
it was concluded that the credentials of Jesus and his apos- 
tles were given from heaven; and, consequently, that the 
New Testament, as an authentic record of what they deli- 
vered, is the book of the revelation of God. 

Here, with perfect safety, might the cause have been con 
sideréd as determined. But, unwilling to content ourselves 
with once establishing the divine authority of the gospel, the 
argument was commenced anew, substituting propHEcyY for 
MIRACLE, as the source of evidence. Considerations were 
stated which render the argument from prophecy specially 
valuable : such as the continual increase of its strength, and 
the important characteristic of many predictions, that their — 


LECTURE XII. 365 


fulfilment, being a matter of present existence, is evidence 
before our eyes—addressed to our senses. Before proceeding 
to the proof of fulfilment, the fact that all other religions 
have shrunk from attempting such dangerous ground as the 
publication of prophecy, and yet that, however certain of 
exposure in case of imposition, it is every where appealed to, 
and rested upon, in the Bible, was treated as a strong 
presumptive argument that in the Bible is found what ‘no 
false religion can possess—something to warrant it in ven- 
turing where divine omniscience alone js able to tread— 
inspiration of God. ‘We then glanced at the immense 
extent, and vast embrace, and wonderful minuteness, which 
characterize the scheme of Scripture prophecy ; the many 
ages included; the variety of agents employed; the numerous 
particulars predicted; and the harmony of all the details. 
The undeniable fact was asserted, that between the least 
prediction of the Bible, and any event of history, there is not 
the smallest evidence of contradiction, We then demanded 
whether it were credible that imposture would ever have 
dared to commit its cause toa venture which could terminate 
successfully only by such a hopeless series of miraculons 
coincidences. 

With all this presumptive evidence on our side, we took 
up a brief selection of important prophecies, and showed 
their minute and wonderful fulfilment, from sources of 
testimony to which there could be no exception. Your 
attention was specially directed to a great variety of predic- 
tions, by different writers, and in all ages of bible history, all 
centering in Jesus, and determining the time and circum- 
stances of his advent; the character of his life; the particulars 
of his sufferings and death ; foretelling his resurrection, and 
the increase of his kingdom. After having thus showed the 
fulfilment of prophecies, of which Jesus was the subject ; 
_ We proceeded to others, of which Jesus was the author. 

In the destruction of Jerusalem, and its subsequent history, 
we had, prepared to our hands by the writings of unbelievers, 


366 LECTURE XII. 


a most impressive accomplishment of a series of predictions 
on the part of our Lord, in which the utmost plainness of 
meaning is united with singular minuteness of detail. ‘The 
agreement between the predictions and the events admitted 
of no denial. The supposition of chance was the only 
explanation to which unbelief could flee. But it was stated, 
on the authority of strict arithmetical calculation, that, 
according to the principles employed in the computation of 
what are called chances, the probability against the occurrence, 
at the predicted time, of all the particulars embraced in the 
prophecies of which we had spoken, exceeded the power of 
numbers to express; even without the consideration of the 
providence of One who hateth iniquity, and especially when 
it is practised under pretence of his authority. The conclusion 
was inevitable: that the Bible, in thus containing so many 
genuine prophecies, scattered through its several books, 
contains revelation from God, and exhibits satisfactory evi- 
dences of divine authority; and that Jesus Christ, being in 
his character and office, as the Saviour of sinners, the great 
theme of this system of prophecy, and being himself endued 
with the spirit of prophecy, was, and is to come, no other 
than what he claimed to be considered, the Son of God, the 
redeemer of men, King of kings, and Lord of lords. 

Here again, we might have rested our cause. But unwil- 
ling to withhold the interesting evidence remaining; we 
commenced the main question anew, and set out to prove the 
divine original, from the history of THE PROPAGATION OF 
CHRISTIANITY. ‘The difficulties in the way of its extensive 
progress were manifest from considering that the enterprise 
of propagating a new religion, to the exclusion of every 
other, was perfectly novel, and universally offensive ; that 
the whole character of the gospel, as a system of doctrine 
and a rule of life, erected a barrier against its progress 
which, to human force, would have proved insurmountable ; 
that it necessarily arrayed against itself all the influence of 
every priesthood ; all the powers of every government ; al. 


LECTURE XII. 367 


the prejudices, habits, and passions of every people; and all 
the pride, wit, and influence of every school of philosophy 
in the world. Add to this, that the character of the age was 
peculiarly adapted to increase the difficulties above mentioned, 
and to put the truth of such a religion as that of the gospel 
to the very closest and strongest trial. The agents intrusted 
with the propagation of christianity were of all others most 
unfitted for their work, on the supposition that it was one of 
imposture. They set up their banner when every thing visible 
on their side only tended to inspire them with despair, and 
every thing on the side of their enemies was considered as 
triumphant. 'The mode they adopted was directly calculated, 
on human principles, to increase and multiply all their 
difficulties. 'They were encountered every where by the 
fiercest persecution that the malignant ingenuity of enemies 
could invent, and the principalities and powers of the earth 
could execute. In spite of all these enormous combinations 
of resistance, such was the rapid and mighty progress of 
the gospel, that, in thirty years, the Roman empire was every 
where pervaded with its influence, and even haughty 
Rome could yield a great multitude, as her first fruits, for 
the fires of persecution. The conversions, which ensued in 
such numbers, were not changes merely of opinion, but of 
heart and life; they involved individuals of all classes of 
mind, of learning, of rank, and of opulence. Nothing: in 
any degree corresponding to this work had ever been known 
before, or has ever been witnessed since; even though 
efforts have frequently been made, in circumstances and 
with means, on the supposition that the apostles were not 
specially favoured of God, much more advantageous than 
theirs. All these particulars combined, demonstrate that in 
the labours of the apostles, none but “ God gave the increase,” 
because none but God could give such increase. They 
present a miracle as unquestionable, as if, at the bidding of 
man, a rock should become a fountain of water. 

Thus, a third time, did we finish our proof. Here, again, 


368 7 LECTURE XII. 


might the argument have been safely terminated. 
FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY Mewar a source of addit 


dkicaettielle with ‘THE EFFECTS OF a , ra 0 
SOCIETY IN GENERAL. We surveyed the moral conc eA 
of mankind when the Bospel era commenced. The 3 most 
ay Me world 
te eS ¥ ee : 
_ Their personal, domes and social virtues were ee placed in 
comparison with those of civilized nations of the pre sen age, 
and especially with those which christian influence has m I ; t 
thoroughly pervaded. The contrast was exceedingly im- 
pressive. The moral improvements effected in society. 1a 
been immense and inestimable. We found nothing i 1 the 
philosophy, or the religion, or the fluctuations, or any | y other 
ingredient of the heathen or infidel world, to effect such a 
change. No heathen nation, left to itself, has ever reformed * 
The history of the world demonstrates that the whole work 
must be charged to christianity. 'The history of christian 
effort, among heathen nations of the present age, demonstrates 
that she was capable, and ever will be capable, of accomplish- 
ing such blessed results. ey) 
From the fruits of christianity on society in general, e 
turn to those exhibited in the character and happiness of her f 
genuine disciples. Undeniable and innumerable transforma- 
tions, in moral character and habits, were pointed out, 
which are utterly incapable of explanation, but on the 
supposition of a divine power accompanying the gospel. 
A comparison was drawn between the lives of genuine disci- 
ples of: Christ, and those for which unbelievers are notori- 
ous. * Another was instituted between the death-bed scenes 
and testimonies of real Christians, and such as have been 
witnessed in connexion with infidelity. It appeared that, 
with a few exceptions, individual: ; are the slaves of sin, in 
proportion as they become devoted to infidelity ; ; while it was © 
equally evident that, without any exception, they become 


LECTURE XII) 369 


servants of righteousness, in proportion as their hearts are 
surrendered to the influence of the gospel. It appeared that 
while, on the one hand, no unbeliever ever advanced beyond 
the negative and comfortless composure of a Stoic, under the 
trial of death, and multitudes, and the very chief of their 
profession, have, in that hour, abandoned their sentiments 
with horror; it was never heard, on the other hand, that a 
Christian regretted, in his death, having believed and obeyed 
the gospel; while innumerable disciples of that blessed faith, 
in the very act of dissolution, have risen to the most triumph- 
ant assurance of eternal life and glory. Such are the legiti- 
mate fruits of the gospel of Christ. 

On the wise principle, therefore, that “a corrupt tree cannot 
bring forth good fruit,’ we must pronounce christianity good ; 
and since no religion can be good without being true, or as 
Hume expressed it: “ error never can produce good,” we must 
conclude that her assertion of divine authority is worthy of all 
acceptation. Thus terminated the argument of the last lecture. 

And now, while the retrospect, we have been taking, is 
fresh in your memories, consider : 

Ist. The plainness and simplicity which characterize the 
evidences of christianity. 'Tio understand the meaning, and 
appreciate the force, of any or all of them, so far as is necessary 
to a clear, intelligent, and impressive conviction of the divine 
inspiration of the scriptures, and the divine nature and mis- 
sion of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a work to which the mind 
of any thoughtful individual of ordinary information is compe- 
tent. Willingness to read, readiness to learn, humility to 
submit to conviction, and an ordinary knowledge of the 
meaning of words, are the only requisites for a satisfactory 
investigation of the whole argument. How different, in this 
respect, is the system of Christ, from all the speculating and 
metaphysical systems of infidel philosophy! What would 
plain common sense people do, did their understanding of the 
grounds of faith and duty depend upon such dark questions, 
as the sufficiency of the light pt nature, the origin of evil, the 


370 LECTURE XII. 


metaphysical relations of cause and effect, the foundation of 
virtue, the elements of accountability, the freedom of the will, 
&c.; questions which must be settled in our own minds, and 
by our own reason, before we can consistently embrace any 
other religion than that of revelation; but about which all 
the philosophy on earth, if it reject the scriptures, may specu- 
late to the end of time, without arriving at sufficient certainty 
to satisfy a single conscience. The gospel requires no abstract 
theories to explain its way of salvation, its principles of 
obligation, or its rule of duty. It simply presents the evi- 
dence that Jesus Christ, the Son and the Sent of God, came 
into the world to teach and to save sinners; and then, to 
every sinner, publishes this plain direction: What Jesus in 
his word has taught, believe; what he has there commanded, 
Sollow ; and, through his righteousness, thou shalt be saved. 

2d. Consider the great variety and accumulation of the 
evidences of christianity. In the lectures to which you have 
listened, were presented no less than four independent and 
complete methods of proof, each of which is amply sufficient 
to bear the whole weight of the gospel. The argument from 
miracies is conclusive without the argument from prophecy. 
The latter is in no wise dependent upon the former, or any 
that succeeded it. The argument from the propagation is 
complete in itself, as well as that from the fruits of christian- 
ity. But under each of these general heads, what a bound- 
less variety of auxiliary evidences might have been adduced ! 
Every single miracle ; every fulfilled prophecy ; a thousand 
Separate facts in the spread of the gospel, and innumerable 
examples of its holy fruits in the hearts and lives of believers, 
would have furnished us with so many effulgent centres, 
from all of which rays of brilliant evidence are continually 
meeting and harmonizing in a shining testimony to Jesus, as 
the resurrection and the life. 


But remember that one whole division, out of the two 


which embrace the field of evidence, has been left untouched. 
We have found an astonishing variety and accumulation of 


LECTURE XII. 371 


proof; and yet the whole department of INTERNAL EVI- 
DENCE, that which arises from the search of the New 'Testa- 
ment itself—its spirit, manner, dress, and beauty—the sim- 
plicity of its character ; the benevolence of its temper; its 
power over the conscience; the suitableness of its contents 
to the wants of man; the excellence of its doctrines; the 
purity and elevation of its morals; the character and con- 
duct of Jesus, and the happy tendency of all his instructions: 
—this immense field of diversified evidence, secondary to 
none in its influence upon the mind, and superior to all in 
its direct appeal to the heart, we have not so much as en- 
tered. Could we but see all the separate streams united in 
one; could we measure at once the force of that majestic 
tide which collects its innumerable tributaries from all ages, 
and all nations, and all hearts; could we appreciate its 
strength by an accurate estimate of all the obstructions with 
which earth and hell, “the prince of the power of the air,” 
and “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” have endea- 
voured to resist its course—the mountains of difficulty which, 
in every century, it has rent asunder, or rolled away to clear 
its course; we should wonder, indeed, at what Divine Good- 
ness has done to make us believers, and at what human 
obduracy has been able to withstand for the purpose of con- 
tinuing in unbelief. 

But this astonishing flood of evidence is perpetually in- 
creasing. Every additional benefit which christianity bestows 
upon any portion of mankind; every additional conversion 
of a sinner to God; every holy life that is added to the 
shining ranks of the followers of Christ ; every new triumph 
of christian faith over the trials of life and the terrors of 
death ; every increase in the fulfilment of prophecy; every 
advance in the conquest of the gospel over the darkness of 
paganism ; every new year of victory over all the resistance 
of pretended friends and unfaithful professors, of internal 
divisions, and infidel enmity, is a new stream to swell the 
many waters, which one day, like the deluge of old, will 


372 LECTURE XII. 


drown unbelief in its last refuge, and make all nations and 
kindreds know how precious, as an ark of safety, is He who 
“came into the world to save sinners.” | 

But who can ask for additional evidence? Did not the 
question affect the darling idols of the heart; were it one of 
property, or of science, or of human life; were it some new 
medicine, to heal the maladies of the body, that laid before 
us this immense mass of credentials from all generations ; or 
were it a scheme for the acquisition of earthly gain that came 
to us accompanied with such voluminous evidence of its 
unfailing truth and wisdom; no man of common sense could 
hesitate a moment to give it his unqualified belief. All men 
are continually committing their dearest interests to evidence 
unspeakably inferior. We intrust our lives to the care of 
physicians, of whose skill, and wisdom, and carefulness, and 
honesty, we have no assurance comparable to our proof of 
Jesus, as the only Physician to save our souls, and as that 
all-sufficient One, in whose hands none can perish. We 
believe, without a question, in all the great events of history ; 
and yet their evidence is so inconsiderable in comparison 
with the proof of the gospel, that if you take away, as unes- 
tablished, the great pillars of the argument of christianity, 
you pronounce the whole foundation of historical know- 
ledge, unestablished; yea, you rob mankind of the whole 
fruit of human testimony, and write terra meognita over 
almost the whole map of the generations and things of the 
universe. 

Ill. How impressive to the mind of every human being, 
should the evidence of christianity appear. If he take up 
any system of faith which men have ever attempted to sub- 
stitute for the gospel, and compare its evidences, how imme- 
diately is it confounded by the contrast. If he attempt to set 
aside any one of the key-stones on which the noble fabric of 
christianity is supported, how immediately are his efforts 


defeated, and his weapons broken? He may invent difficul- 


ties, but the arguments of the gospel he cannot answer, 


vy 


LECTURE XII. 373 | 


‘What, then, is the condition of the inquirer? ‘The religion — 
of Christ, thus solemnly and impressively attested, declares _ 
him a sinner before a just and holy God; condemned, under 
sentence of the divine law, to eternal retribution and wo. It 
tells him, that except he repent, he must perish ; except he 
believe in and follow Jesus, as his Master and only Hope, he 
cannot be delivered from condemnation. It declares, on the 
other hand, that if he repent and believe on the Lord. Jesus 
Christ, he shall be saved; the sting of death will be taken 
away; an inheritance will be given him “ that is incorrupti- 
ble, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” All this comes 
to him under the sanction of evidences innumerable ; for 
none of which is he provided with an answer. History 
mforms him that the best and wisest men of all ages have 
considered those evidences incontrovertible. Immense mul- 
titudes assure him, that in embracing the gospel they have 
experienced the truth of its promises, and realized the holy 
and happy influence of its doctrines. ‘The probability, to 
say the very least, must seem immense, even toa sceptic, that 
should he reject christianity, he would reject the truth of 
God, and incur eternal ruin. While, on the other hand, the 
certainty is evident, that should he embrace it, not only would 
he suffer no Joss in case it should prove untrue, but he would 
gain many precious consolations in this life, of which infi- 
delity is entirely barren. In these circumstances, how serious 
is the crisis, when he is making the choice whether to be an 
infidel or a christian! Does he decide for infidelity? He 
can gain nothing ; he certainly loses much; and if the gos- 
pel be true, he loses all for ever. Does he decide for chris- 
tianity? He can lose nothing; he certainly gains a great 
deal; and if infidelity prove to be true, he has nothing to 
regret but that truth and happiness should be so directly 
at war. 

Then what a step does he take, who, notwithstanding all 
the evidences of the religion of Jesus, determines upon its 
denial? What solemnity pe carefulness of investigation ; 


374 LECTURE XII. 


what candour and impartiality of judgment; what jealousy 
over one’s own inclinations and prejudices; what long and 
patient consideration ; what earnest prayer for divine guid- 
ance and help, should precede such a decision! One would 
suppose that at least the maturest knowledge, and the coolest 
temperament, and the most sober hours, would be waited for, 
before coming to a point on which such tremendous conse- 
quences are suspended. What, then, is our amazement to see 
the stupid ignorance, or the senseless levity, or the lazy 
thoughtlessness, or the intemperate enmity, with which this 
momentous decision is almost always made! How many 
become infidels, not only without candid investigation, but 
without any serious thinking; without so much as an inquiry; 
without even a decent sobriety of mind! 'T’o such persons, 
I know not a more alarming occupation than that of read- 
ing a well ordered exhibition of the evidences of chris- 
tianity. 

Have the evidences of the christian religion been ever 
answered? Infidels have attacked christianity. But any 
thing may be attacked. They have slandered her doctrines; 
ridiculed her word; reviled her precepts; hated her holiness, 
and influenced many to go and do likewise: but neither 
hatred, nor reviling, nor ridicule, nor slander, is the test of 
truth. Have infidels ever resorted to the one only fair and 
honest mode of meeting, face to face, the whole array of 
testimony which christianity advances, and endeavouring 
cooly to prove, as a matter of historical evidence, that the 
authenticity of the New ‘Testament, and the credibility of 
its history, are not sustained; that the miracles of Jesus 
have not been supported with adequate testimony ; that the 
prophecies of the scriptures have met their attestation in no 
accurate histories; that christianity was propagated by 


human force alone, and its fruits are those of a corrupt and 


deceitful tree? 1 answer, no. ‘There is no such effort in the 

‘ eo ~ phat 
books of infidelity. I read of speculations, opposed to our 
facts; insinuations, in answer to our testimonies ; Sneers, in 


Ee 
—< =. 


LECTURE XII. 375 


reply toour solemn reasonings; assertions, where wedemanded 
arguments; levity and presumption, wherean advocate of truth 
would have been serious and humble. But I know of no such 
thing, as a book of infidelity in any sense corresponding m the 
nature, or grounds, or spirit of its reasoning, with such arguments 
for christianity as those of Paley, or Lardner, or Gregory, or 
Wilson, and a thousand others, to which no man ever dared 
to attempt an answer. Infidelity, like an insect on the pillar 
of some stupendous temple, that can see no further than the 
microscopic irregularities of the polished marbie beneath its 
feet, may busy itself in hunting for little specks in the surface 
of the noble fabric of christianity ; but has no such eye, and 
takes no such elevated stand, as would enable it to survey 
the whole plan, and judge of its pretensions by the mutual 
adaptation of its parts, the harmony and grandeur of its 
proportions. 

IV. But there is a most important feature in all the 
evidence we have been considering, to which I now direct 
your special attention. It is strictly pHrosopnicaL. By 
this I mean that the process by which we have arrived at 
the truth of christianity is precisely similar to that by which 
the astronomer arrives at the most certain truths of the 
celestial bodies; or the chymist determines the most funda- 
mental doctrines of his important .science. The grand 
characteristic of the philosophy that Bacon illustrated, and 
Newton so nobly applied, and to which all science is so 
deeply indebted, is that it discards speculation; places no, 
dependence upon theory; demands fact for every thing, 
and in every thing submits implicitly to the decision of fact, 
no matter how incomprehensible, or how opposed by all the 
speculations of the world. This is called inductive philosophy 
in distinction from that of theory and conjecture. It collects 
its facts either by personal experiments and observation ; or 
by the testimony of those whose experiments and observa 
tions, and whose fidelity in recording them, are worthy of 
reliance. From these it makes its careful inductions, and 


376 LECTURE XII. 


determines the laws of science, with a degree of plain, 
unpresuming authority, to which every enlightened mind 
feels it ought to bow. The great principle of all Newton’s 
Principia, and that on which he set the ladder that raised 
him to the stars, was this simple axiom: “ Whatever is 
collected from this induction ought to be received, notwith- 
standing any conjectural hypothesis to the contrary, till such 
time as it shall be contradicted or limited by further observa- 
tions.” But why is not this seif-evident truth as fundamental 
in religion, as in astronomy? If Reid and Stewart have 
been permitted, with universal consent and approbation, to 
apply the simple principles of induction to the philosophy 
of the mind; on what possible ground ean they be excluded 
from the philosophy of the soul—the religion of the heart? 
We beg as a favour, what is also demanded by right, that 
christianity may be tried by the strictest application of these 
principles. You are called upon for no greater effort of 
credulity ; no more implicit reliance on testimony, in order 
io receive the whole system of christianity, as a divine 
revelation, than you are obliged daily to exercise in believ- 
ing those innumerable facts in natural science, which you 
have not the opportunity of testing by your own experiments. 
In regard to these, you simply ask, what is the statement? 
is it accurate? Is it.honest? However it may contradict 
your previous ideas, or seem at variance with previous 
phenomena, or even with well established. iaws, you only 
investigate the testimony with the more carefulness. This 
confirmed, you receive the facts; and, instead of squaring 


them by any of your old theories or speculations, you proceed 


to measure the latter by their line, with as much submission 
as if every mystery involved in them, were perfectly explained. 
Only behave thus reasonably in the investigation of the 
gteat question we have been considering. Apply to it the 
measuring rod of sound philosophy. Let every speculation 
as to its truth be blotted out. Let all conjectural hypotheses, 
for and against it, be set aside. Let the infidel and the 


LECTURE XII. 377 


Christian sit together in the chairs of Bacon and of Newton; 
and with that stern rejection of mere theory, and lowly defer- 
ence to fact, which so eminently distinguished those venerable 
patriarchs of modern science, let the New ‘Testament be 
brought to the bar. It professes to be the authentic and 
credible record of the life and doctrine of Christ. In it, 
Christ professes to have been sent of God. Let the question 
be put. Not, however, is this religion consistent with our 
notions of what man wanted, and God might have been 
expected to reveal? Not, does it contain any thing strange, 
or mysterious, or apparently contradictory to what we have 
been accustomed to believe? But, let it be a plain question 
of inductive philosophy. Is it supported by a competent 
number of well certified facts? Is there so much credible 
testimony that we are warranted in determining that the 
New ‘Testament is authentic; that its history is true; that 
Jesus did work miracles; that his prophecies have been 
fulfilled ? that no human power, unaided by that of God, can 
account for the propagation of his gospel; that no corrupt 
imposture could ever produce the fruit with which its in- 
fluence has blessed mankind? If there be, then all true 
philosophy says: “ Christianity ought to be believed, not- 
withstanding any conjectural hypothesis to the contrary.” 
Only confine yourselves to this mode of investigation, and 
submit yourselves to this simple law of evidence, and, like 
Newton, you may mount a ladder set on a rock, and reaching 
to the right hand of the throne of God. Proceed on any 
other principle, and, like the heavenly vortexes and the 
immense currents of etherea! matter in the philosophy of 
Des Cartes, it can only lead you into inextricable confusion. 
But, if you adopt the true principles; what becomes of the 
writings of infidels? Buried amidst the rubbish of vain 
speculations, and ingenious absurdities, and scholastic trifling 
of the dark ages, when to get wealth by the hypothesis of a 
philosopher’s stone, instead of the homely, experimental 
realities of diligence and common sense, was the great effort 


378 LECTURE XII. 


of scientific ambition! Infidelity is all speculation. Reduce 
it to a residuum of inductive reasoning, and you bring it to 
nothingness. Strip it of its several envelopes of ingenious 
hypothesis, and bold assertion, and scoffing declamation, and 
you find nothing left but a man of straw—an ugly shape to 
keep the hungry from the bread of life, which you need only 
approach to discover that it is made of rags, and stuffed with 
rottenness. 

The argument for the divine authority of the gospel is all 
composed of statements of undeniable facts, and of direct 
inferences legitimately drawn from them. I defy the ingenuity 
of the keenest critic to take up the course of reasoning to which 
you have listened, and point out a single theory, or specula- 
tion—any thing, depended on for proof, but plain statements 
of facts, established as perfectly, and bearing as directly upon 
the point in question, as any of the observations of Newton’s 
telescope, or of Davy’s crucible. Not a word have we said 
as to what might be supposed or conjectured ; what is likely 
or unlikely; what might have been expected or the contrary; 
but have simply inquired, what is historically true. Let our 
opponents do likewise. Whether any thing in christianity 
appears to them probable or improbable; consistent or in- 
consistent ; agreeable to what they should have expected, or 
the contrary ; wise and good, or ridiculous and useless ; is 
perfectly irrelevant. We can by no means consent to make 
their judgments the standard in such matters. Infidels are 
thought to entertain very absurd and inconsistent ideas of 
absurdity and inconsistency, and of what should be esteemed 
as both good and wise. We ask them to descend from their 
flights of fancy and speculation, and condescend, in matters 
of religion, to do what, in those of science, public opinion 
would force them to, or laugh them out of countenance ; to 
sit down to the plain investigation, on principles of common 
evidence, of the facts which support christianity, determined 


to believe what may be collected therefrom, notwithstanding 


any of their conjectural hypotheses to the contrary. Such 


LECTURE XII. 379 


was once the honest demand of astronomy and chymistry 
upon all the tribes of theorists and conjecturalists, in those 
departments of science. It is but a short time since our 
present fundamental doctrines, on those subjects, were opposed 
by philosophers whose speculations they rooted up, precisely 
as the great doctrines of the gospel are still opposed by infidels 
whose lives they condemn. By and. by, it became irresistibly 
evident that there is no way to science but by the slow and 
humble path of experiment, obtained either by personal 
observation, or by the credible testimony of others. As soon 
as men of scientific minds shall learn to be consistent with 
their own principles, and to reason philosophically, as well 
when a law of religion, as aiaw of nature is concerned, then 
the contradiction will no longer appear, of a philosopher loving 
to investigate the works of God, but rejecting His word.” 

In truth, the evidence of christianity rests upon a basis 
which cannot be condemned, without the downfall of many 
of the most important works of science. The main facts and 
reasonings of chymistry are considered undeniable, because 
experimental. But who feels it necessary to make all the 
experiments, or to see them made, before he will believe? 
Many of the most important, he receives, and must receive, 
upon the testimony of others. Thus it is also in astronomical 
calculations. Seldom are the facts obtained from our own 
observations. Many of them, we believe, because they are 
reported by credible witnesses. We come to a certain result, 
by means of a number taken from a table of calculations 
made to our hands, with as much assurance, and base our 
reasonings upon it as confidently, as if we had obtained all 

the elements by our own labour; and yet the very corner 
stone of our computation is a mere matter of testimony. On 
such reliance are eclipses predicted, and nautical observations 
founded ; and yet a man of science who should evince any 
scepticism with regard to events thus ascertained, would 


ORAS RUE Lee aie ee 
* On the application of the inductive philosophy to the evidences of chris- 
tianity, see chapters viii: and ix. of Chalmer’s Evidences. 


tae. 


380 LECTURE XIi. 


render himself no less an object of ridicule than if he should 
cavil about the sun’s rising to-morrow. What is a page of 
logarithms, but a page of assertions, the whole value of which 
is the faith of testimony; and yet upon such data the most 
momentous calculations in the exact sciences are based with- 
out a question. 

Pure mathematics are considered as involving complete 
demonstrations. Mathematical reasoning is regarded as the 
very perfection of certainty. And yet, in many of its most 
important operations, elements, on which the whole chain 
depends, are assumed on a basis not a particle more sure, to 
say the least, than that on which our belief of the christian 
miracles is founded. “ Who would scruple, in a geometrical 
investigation, to adopt as a link in the chain a theorem of 
Apollonius or of Archimedes, although he might not have 
leisure at the moment to satisfy himself, by an actual examina- 
tion of their demonstrations, that they had been guilty of no 
paralogism, either of accident or design, in the course of their 
reasonings?”* And yet a result, however important, arising 
from such an investigation, none would suspect. A philoso- 
'pher would rest his life upon its certainty. But have we 
assurance of the accuracy and honesty of such men, to whose 
testimony we thus implicitly yield, whether they be mathema- 
ticians, or chymists, or astronomers, comparable in any degree 
to our assurance of the competent knowledge and immovea- 
ble honesty of those original witnesses of the works of Jesus 
who have borne such devoted testimony to his miracles? Did 
Apollonius, or Archimedes, or any philosophers of later times, 
seal their honesty with their blood? Did they suffer the loss 
of all things in maintenance of their doctrines? Were they 
willing to be accounted as fools for the sake of their testimony? 


Did Galileo brave the torture of the inquisition sooner than 


deny his astronomical discoveries? We do not require such 


extreme evidence of integrity even in the greatest questions 


of scientific testimony. It were folly to expect it. We are 
* Stewart’s Philosophy, ii. 178. 


co af ee 


LECTURE XII. 381 


Satisfied with a far inferior degree of assurance. And yet 
such, in ten thousands of iristances, is the evidence by which 
we know the honesty of those from whom comes our testi- 
mony to the great facts of the gospel history. They did 
suffer the loss of all things; they did endure to be treated as 
the offscouring of all things ; they did give themselves to the 
rack, and flame, and wild beasts, for the testimony of Jesus, 

I mentioned, in the announcement of this lecture, that 
besides a summary of the whole previous course, it would 
contain an application of the argument to the principal 
objections brought forward by infidels. ‘This, in substance, 
has been exhibited. We know of no objection of any im 
portance which is not put to silence and buried, by an appeal 
from what men think to what men have done ; from specu- 
lation to testimony ; from the ideas of objectors to the facts 
of witnesses. The simple application of the great principle 
of inductive philosophy, that whatever is collected by observa- 
tion ought to be recewed, any hypothesis to the contrary 
notwithstanding, is the smooth white stone in the sling of 
David, which no champion of the Philistines, however 
gigantic in intellect, or learning, or in the boast of either, can 
stand. Iam now speaking of the chief objections. I have 
nothing to do with the ignorant ribaldry of such an antago- 
nist as Paine: ‘To this man, the purity of the gospel was its 
chief deformity ; and its stern contradiction of his disgusting 
vices, its most irreconcilable inconsistency. He studied the 
Bible to defame it, and scraped the common sewers of infi- 
delity for its very lowest and filthiest objections; and then, 
without honesty even to advert to the thousand answers each 
had received in its day, served them up with his own dress- 
ing of strong assertion and acrid ridicule, and advertised 
them to the world as his own, and as unanswerable. Such 
matters we must leave to the writings of those who have had 
stomach to handle them. In the answer of Bishop Wat- 
son, you may see how entirely boasting is their strength. 
They need but the light, to make all their show of argument 

32 


382 LECTURE XII. 


fade away. 'Their best answer is found in the profligate life 
and despairing death of the poor, miserable man himself. 
The mysteriousness of certain things in christianity is 
urged as a strong reason for the rejection of its divine author- 
ity. Many will not believe the doctrine of the Trinity ; the 
divinity of Christ; his incarnation ; his atoning sacrifice ; 
his resurrection from the dead; his intercession in heaven ; 
the influences of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of men, and 
our new creation unto holiness by his converting power, not 
to speak of many other of the deep things of God, because 
they are mysteries. Mysteries they are unquestionably, and 
were intended to be so regarded. {So far as we have need to 
understand them, they are as intelligible as the plain truth 
that man is the union of body and spirit. So far as we 
are not concerned to understand them, they are as mysterious, 
but not more so, than the nature of the union between body 
and spiritin man. Religion must have mysteries. “ Reli- 
gion without its mysteries is a temple without its God.” 
Whither shall we flee to get beyond the region of things 
incomprehensible? They beset us behind and before. If 


from revealed religion, we go to natural, they are there! — 


The most essential doctrine of all religion, the existence of 
God, is mystery to the uttermost. What explanation can be 
given of his self-existence? His presence in all parts of the 
universe at once? How he inhabits eternity, having no rela- 


tion to time—and immensity, having no relation to space? 


If from natural religion, we go to atheism, they are there 


ms ee 


also! He who denies the existence of God, plunges at once — 


into the most confounding of all mysteries. What in scrip- 
ture is more incomprehensible than that this world had no 
Maker ? that all its examples of wise and deep design had 
no Designer? ‘Will you go from thence, to the experimental 
certainties of natural philosophy ? Mysteries are there also ! 
Explain the attraction of gravitation, the nature of electri- 
city, the elastic power of steam, the secrets of evaporation. 


What is vegetable, or animal, or spiritual life? In mechan- 


“ 


tj 
. 


LECTURE XII. ° 383 


ics, We arrive at the utmost certainty respecting the relations 
of force, matter, time, motion, space; while, with the things 
themselves, we have not the least acquaintance. 'They are 
mysteries, as unsearchable to us, as the deepest things of re- 
vealed religion. How force is communicated from one body 
to another, is no more intelligible than how the influences 
of the Holy Spirit are communicated to man. Matter, in 
its changes, is as incomprehensible as grace in its operations. 
“There are questions, doubts, perplexities, disputes, diversi- 
ties of opinions, about the one as well as about the other. 
Ought we not, therefore, by a parity of reasoning, to con- 
clude that there may be several true and highly useful pro- 
positions about the latter as well as about the former? Nay, 
I will venture to go farther, and affirm (says a devoted teacher 
of science) that the preponderance of the argument is in 
favour of the propositions of the theologian. For while 
force, time, motion, &c., are avowedly constituent parts of a 
demonstrable science, and ought, therefore, to be presented in 
a full blaze of light, the obscure parts proposed in the scrip- 
tures for our assent are avowedly mysterious. They are not 
exhibited to be perfectly understood, but to be believed. 
They cannot be understood without ceasing to be what they 
are. Obscurities, however, are felt as incumbrances to any 
system of philosophy ; while mysteries are ornaments of the 
christian system, and tests of the humility and faith of its vo- 
taries. So that ifthe rejectors of incomprehensibilities acted 
consistently with their own principles, they would rather 
throw aside all philosophical theories in which obscurities 
are found and exist as defects, than the system of revealed 
religion, in which they enter as essential parts of that ‘mys- 
tery of godliness’ in which the apostles gloried.”* 

If from natural philosophy, we ascend to the higher 
branches of pure mathematics, the regions of unmixed light 
and certainty, where naught is tolerated but strict demonstra- 


* Gregory’s Letters, 


384 LECTURE XII. 


tion, even there will mystery find us, and its right hand 
will hold us. i 

Explain the demonstrated fact that “there are curves 
which approach continually to some fixed right line, with- 
out the possibility of ever meeting it ;” that “a space infinite 
in one sense, may, by its rotation, generate a solid of finite 
capacity ;” that “a variable space shall be continually aug- 
menting, and yet never become equal to a certain finite 
quantity.” 

These are depths which the mathematician can solve no 
better than Christians can explain the great mysteries of 
redemption. But they do not hinder him. He can use, as 
the elements of his calculation, doctrines thus ineompre- 
hensible, without feeling any diminution in the certainty of 
the result. Why may not a Christian, with equal reason, 


include among the articles of his belief doctrines no more 


incomprehensible, without embarrassing his assurance of the 
duties and consolations which result from them ? 

If mysteries be valid objections to that which speaks of 
God and his relations to man, why are they not at least as 
formidable in all those branches of human knowledge in 
which created and finite subjects alone are involved? But 
they are not treated as objections by the mathematician or 
the philosopher. 'The former asks no question, but simply, 
what 1s demonstrated? 'The latter, what is proved, either 
by experiment or by testimony 2 If phenomena be well 
attested, he does not wait to understand their cause, or mode, 
or effects ; he does not suspend belief till he has harmonized 
their peculiarities with a favourite hypothesis, or with pre- 
vious observations. He sets them down among the truths 
of science, and believes ; taking for granted, that though he 
may not understand them, there is One that does; and though 
he should never discover the theory by which such events 
are shown to be in agreement with all others, there is still a 
harmony which pervades “all things in heayen and earth, 
and under the earth,” 


& - 
See 


LECTURE XII. 385 


Such is the application of inductive philosophy to the 
mysteries of nature. Let the mysteries of revelation be 
treated with equal justice; and instead of employing them 
as objections to its truth, you will acknowledge them as 
essential to its nature, and portions of its glory." 

But there are many who object to christianity, not only 
because they cannot understand the natwre, but because 
they cannot see the reason, of certain things contained in, 
or connected with it. For example: It is well known that 
God is gracious and merciful, and desireth not the death of 
a sinner, and that He has all power to save whom He will ; 
and yet it is revealed that without the sacrifice of Christ, and 
without conversion and faith, the sinner cannot be saved. 
Why, it is asked, this circuitous method, this expense of 
suffering, when a word from the Almighty would save the 
world? An intelligent Christian could give many answers 
to this question; but what if he had none? Would the 
way of salvation, as revealed in the gospel, be in any degree 
less credible? Shall we refuse to believe the ways of God, 
till he has laid all his reasons before us? Why not as well 
deny His works on the same indefensible ground? Why 
believe that a sick man cannot recover without a tedious 
course of medicine? God can raise him with a word! 
Why cultivate the ground, and seek the mediatorial office of 
the sun for the raising and ripening of your grain? God 
can load your fields with harvests without such a circuitous 
process! Why His power 1s not exerted immediately for 
these purposes, you can no more explain than why a sinner 
cannot be saved but by faith in the sacrifice of Christ. Your 
belief in the importance of intermediate steps depends as 
little upon the reasons of the divine appointments, in one 
case as in the other. ; 

Again: you read that the gospel is of inestimable import- 
ance to the happiness of man; a wonderful exhibition of 


* See an admirable article on Mysteries in Religion, in Gregory’s Let- 


ters, vol. i. 
oe, 


ce Pood 
nan 
+e 


386 LECTURE XII. 


divine grace to sinners; and yet there are hundreds of mij- 
lions who have never heard of it, and it is asked, why, since 
God is infinitely good and merciful, as well as mighty, such 
an immeasurable blessing has not been communicated to all 
mankind? This question is often put as a strong objection 
to the divine origin of the gospel. Were it taught in the 
scriptures that those who had never had the gospel will be 
judged by its law, the objection would have force. But there 
is no snch doctrine. 'The objection is reasonable only so far 
as there is reason in a creature’s requiring the Creator to 
explain His ways, and admit him to His councils, before he 
will believe them. Doesa philosopher stand on such grounds? 
Does he doubt the immense difference between the gifts and 
blessings, the privileges and improvements, of a native of 
England, and those of a savage of Kamtchatka, because he 
knows not for what reason it was so ordained? Does he deny 
that the former are inestimable, because not universal? Will 
one refuse to believe that he has a mine of gold in his field, 
or that the gold is worth his seeking, because all men are not 
equally favoured? Shall a husbandman despise the genial 
rain upon his grass, because his neighbour’s fleece is dry ? 
If God has not seen fit to reveal the reasons for which He 
has distributed the gifts of nature, of providence, or of grace 
with an unequal hand, I find nothing to complain of. I can 
still believe that those gifts are from above, and are excellent, 
and distributed under the guidance of infinite wisdom. 

That there are no difficulties connected with the scriptures, 
and with the doctrines of revealed religion, it would be saying 
too much for the intelligence, education, and study of the 
general reader, to assert. Until all shall be candid, studious, 
patient, and humble, some will find many difficulties in chris- 
tanity. Ifa child, instead of beginning arithmetic in the 
elements, should dive at once into the midst of a calculation 
of algebraic roots and powers, he would scarcely escape being 
stifled with difficulties. Thus, however, do most objectors 
to christianity endeavour to appreciate its doctrines. Instead ? 


LECTURE XII. 387 


of learning first the first principles, they plunge without 
ceremony amidst the deepest mysteries of the gospel. Is it 
wonderful that they come out, exclaiming: “Who is sufficient 
for these things?” It is well said: “Objections against a 
thing fairly proved are of no weight. 'The proof rests upon 
our knowledge, and the ojections upon our ignorance. It is 
true that moral demonstrations and religious doctrines may 
be attacked in a very ingenious and plausible manner, be- 
cause they involve questions on which our ignorance is 
greater than our knowledge; but still our knowledge is 
knowledge; or in other words, certainty is certainty. In 
mathematical reasoning, our knowledge is greater than our 
ignorance. When you have proved that the three angles of 
every triangle are equal to two right angles, there is an end 
of doubt; because there are no materials for ignorance to 
work up into phantasms, but your knowledge is really no 
more certain than your knowledge on any other subject.” 

If it be a valid objection to religion that, to some minds, it 
presents difficulties which cannot be solved, then there is no 
department of human knowledge that may not be legitimately 
condemned. What is more certain than the existence of a 
material universe? or of the necessary connexion of cause 
and effect? But even in these, wise heads have succeeded 
in discovering difficulties which it would puzzle much more 
sensible people to remove by a process of reasoning. ‘That 
matter is infinitely divisible, is assumed in science as funda- 
mentally certain. 'That the doctrine, however, involves very 
great difficulties, is palpable to all common sense, inasmuch 
as, to suppose a foot measure divided into an infinite number 
of parts, requiring an infinite number of portions of time to 
pass over them, and yet to be passed over in a moment, Is to 
make a moment infinite, in other words, eternal ; for although 
it should be said that the portions of time would be infinitely 
small, still they would be portions of time, and an infinite 
number of any portions of time must make an infinite dura- 
tion. Who will pretend that in this, there is no room for 


F 
t 
j 
as cee 


Se gia 


388 LECTURE XII. 


perplexity and doubt? In the mean time, the operations of 
science, in which the infinite divisibility of matter is assumed, 
proceed with as much confidence as if there were no difficulty 
connected with it.* | 

Much is said of the certainty of mathematical demonstra- 
tions ; but if difficulties that cannot be solved are sufficient 
objections, even here also must sentence of condemnation 
be pronounced. It might be shown how trifling are even the 
definitions of geometry, the most exact of all the mathema- 
tical sciences. Its definitions might be alleged, upon no 
inconsiderable grounds, to be nonsensical and ridiculous; its 
demands or postulates, plainly impracticable; its axioms or 
self-evident propositions, controvertible, and controverted 
indeed even by themselves. But why are not these things 
objected to the truth of mathematics? What is there in the 
religion of Jesus more encumbered with difficulties ? 

Were the dispositions of the human heart and the idols 
of asinner’s devotion as much opposed by the demonstrations 
of mathematics, as by the doctrines of christianity, it would 
be just as dificult to convince men of the truth of the former, 
as of the latter. The folly of speaking of a something that 
has length without breadth; of a point that has no parts; , — 
of lines for ever approaching and never meeting, é&c.; the 
futility of basing a certain demonstration upon elements so 
unintelligible and impossible, would be trumpeted to the ends 
of the world. The wicked would no more believe a pro- 
position of geometry, than they will now, a doctrine of 
redemption. 'The scoffer would find as much to ridicule in 
Newton’s Principia as in Paul’s Epistles.j | 
whether we grant or deny it, in consequences, impossible to be explicated, or 
made in our apprehensions consistent; consequences that carry greater diffi- 
culty, and more apparent absurdity, than any thing that can follow from the 
notion of an immaterial substance.”—Locke on Human Understanding. 


+ See an interesting piece of reasoning, apropos to the above, in one of the 


tracts of the American Tract Society, entitled “ Conversation with a Young 
Traveller,” No, 203. 


‘ 


LECTURE XII. 389 


But we do injustice to the good cause in which we are 
engaged by standing exclusively on the defensive. Infidelity 
has too long been indulged with the privilege of attack. It 
is the stratagem of weakness, to put on a bold front and’ 
make a desperate assault. Any arm can strike, but not 
every breast can repela blow. It is high time infidelity 
were accused and brought to the bar. What proof of a 
single feature of doctrine or of moral principle can it 
produce, after having rejected such evidence as that of 
christianity? What satisfactory argument for the obligation 
of any thing connected with natural religion; what reason 
for believing in a future state; what proof even of the 
existence of God, can be offered as worthy of reliance, 
without a shameful inconsistency, by men who, in the 
immense power of evidence sustaining the divine authority 
.of the gospel, can find nothing to convince them ? 

We have shown that the argument for christianity 1s 
strictly philosophical, because entirely experimental. It 
might easily be shown that every system of infidelity, so far 
as it pretends to any religious doctrine or precept, is wholly 
destitute of all claim to such a character. What a catalogue 
of theoretical assertions, and unsustained conjectures, and 
positive contradictions, and gross absurdities, and inexplicable 
difficulties, might be drawn up against the most rational of 
the infidel systems! The Deist professes to believe that the 
light of nature is sufficient for human guidance in all matters. 
of moral obligation ; and yet he believes that notwithstanding 
such all-sufficiency, some among those who have attempted 
to. follow it have contended for the immortality of the soul,. 
and others have denied it; some have maintained that God 
created all things, others that matter is as much from eternity 
as Himself; some, that He governs and will judge the world, 
others that He does not concern himself about it; some, that 
God should be worshipped, others that all worship is weak 
superstition ; some, that virtue is virtuous, and vice vicious, 
others, that there is no distinction in principle between them 5, 


# 


390 LECTURE XII. 


that sin is but a matter of custom and opinion, and that the 
indulgence of the lowest passions is no more to be blamed 
than the thirst of a fever or the drowsiness of a lethargy. 
Some infidels deny that Jesus ever lived, and yet they 
believe that the whole nation of the Jews, bitter enemies of 
christianity as they have always been, acknowledge that 
they put him to death on the cross. Some confess that there 
was such a person, but accuse him of a most barefaced 
system of fraud and imposture; and yet they cannot but 
concede that his character was eminently pure and excellent. 
Others, to escape such a contradiction, maintain that he was 
a pure, but weak and visionary enthusiast; and yet they 
acknowledged that he composed and inculcated a system of 
morals very far superior to that of the wisest of the ancient 
philosophers. Infidels profess to believe that the apostles of 
Christ were instigated by mercenary considerations, and_ yet 
that they willingly suffered the loss of all things ; by ambi- 
tious considerations, and yet they submitted cheerfully-to all 
ignominy and shame! Aceording to infidels, they were 
devoted to a selfish scheme of personal benefit, and yet were 
always going about doing good, without the least regard to 
their own corvenience or pleasure. They were gTOss 
deceivers, it is said, and yet they endured all sufferings, and 
sacrificed their lives, in confirmation of their sincerity. They 
were weak fanatics, and yet the strongest and most learned 
minds could not resist the power and wisdom with which 
they spake. Infidels deny that Jesus ever wrought miracles, 
but cannot deny that his bitterest enemies, who had infinitely 
better opportunities of judging than they can boast, confessed 
that he did. Infidels pretend that the prophecies of the 
Bible were nothing more than guesses, and that all corres- 
pondence between them and subsequent history was a mere 
matter of chance; and yet they cannot find, among all the 
guesses In the Bible, a single failure; while they cannot deny 
that many of its guesses have succeeded, in the minutest 
pexticulars, in spite of a proportion of chances against them 


j 
Bo 


* 


LECTURE XII. 391 


too great for numbers to express. Infidels contend that the 
gospel is against all reason and common sense, as well as 
truth ; they laugh at the efforts of modern apostles to convert 
the nations of heathenism to the faith of Christ, as visionary 
and fruitless. Nothing seems to them more impossible than 
that such an enterprize should succeed. And yet, according 
to their wisdom, when only twelve missionaries, with none 
of the education, or experience, or human support and 
countenance; with none of the facilities for multiplying 
books, and disseminating knowledge, which modern labourers 
possess ; when twelve despised, persecuted Jews, undertook 
a similar work, not among ignorant barbarians, but polished 
Greeks; and when, in less than forty years, their cause 
was coextensive with the known world; then what is so 
impossible now was nothing wonderful or unaccountable ; it 
was a mere matter of human contrivance and enthusiastic 
perseverance ; the work of men alone, and of weak, super- 
stitious, credulous, simple, and deceitful men, though the 
only work of the kind since the creation of the world ! 

It were easy to proceed much further with this array of 
the contradiction and difficulties into which men are neces: 
sarily brought by rejecting the evidences of christianity. 
But we have said enough to show, that if infidels were put 
upon the defensive a little more frequently, they would have 
much less time to be creeping, with poisoned arrows, around 
the outworks of christianity. Let them point out, in the 
belief of the gospel, any thing like the contradictions and 
absurdities involved in a profession of infidelity, and it shall 
be renounced as unworthy the countenance of a rational 
being. 


392 LECTURE XIII. 


LECTURE XIII. 


INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES, AND CONCLUDING 
OBSERVATIONS. — 


Tue external evidences of christianity, as a system of 
faith, divinely revealed, we consider to have been closed with 
the lecture next preceding the last. On that subject, we 
shall offer no additional argument. But there remains one 
very important matter of inquiry. | 

Christianity and the scriptures are essentially associated. 
Without the latter, we should not have received the former, 
But however inseparable in the use of their benefits, they 
are quite distinct in the proof of their infallible origin. It is 
one thing to show that the doctrines taught in the scriptures 
are divine ; and another, that the books containing those doc- 


trines are divine. The former, we think, has been fully 


established. 'The latter has not yet been attempted. We 
have proved that the books of scripture are authentic and 
credible ; the works of the authors whose names they bear ; 
and correct narratives of such matters of fact as they profess 
to relate. But were we to stop here, we should leave the 
Bible on a level, in point of authority, with many other books 
of the christian religion which contain the truth, and, so far 
as we can judge, contain nothing else; and yet have no pre- 
tension to any other than a human origin. In this case, we 
should have no ultimate and sure appeal for either doctrine or 
duty ; a door would be open for all manner of interference, 
on the part of “man’s wisdom,” for the perversion and cor- 
ruption of the truth ; the most essential features of the gos- 
pel, on the easy plea that the apostles, being men, may 
Sometimes have misunderstood their Master, would be acces- 


sible to the most ruinous suspicions of overstatement or 
misconception. 


LECTURE XIII. 393 


We have need, not only of a divine system of religion, 
but of a divine teacher of that system. 'The latter was pos- 
sessed by the apostles in the person of Christ, while he con- 
tinued with them; and subsequently in the special presence 
and guidance of the Holy Ghost, whom the Saviour promised 
as a Comforter, to lead them into all truth. In place of the 
privileges thus possessed, what remains to which may con- 
fidently be referred every question of religious doctrine and 
duty, and by which our minds may be safely led to the whole 
truth as it isin Jesus? Are the scriptures infallible? In 
other words, are they divine? Have they been “ given by 
inspiration of God 2” 'This brings us at once to the main 
point of the present lecture—THE INSPIRATION OF THE 
SCRIPTURES—a subject which, however eminently important, 
has had so much done, preparatory to its consideration, in 
our. previous lectures, that it need not occupy at present a 
large portion of your time. 

The distinct proposition to which your attention is called, I 
would express partly in the language of St. Peter: The 
scriptures came not by the will of man: but holy men of Giod 
wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; or in the 
words of St. Paul: “ All scripture is given by inspiration of 
God.” | 

By inspiration is understood: “Such a communication by 
the Holy Spirit to the minds of the sacred writers, of those 
things which could not have been otherwise known, and such 
an effectual superintendency, as to those particulars, concern- 
ing which they might otherwise obtain information, as 
sufficed absolutely to preserve them from every degree of 
error-in all things which could in the least affect any of the 
doctrines or precepts contained in their writings, or mislead 
any person who considered them as a divine and infallible 
standard of truth and duty.” 

‘This definition is perfectly consistent with what a critic 
would regard as a fault of style in a book of scripture; or a 
philosopher, as Pepe egupocarate ; or a rhetorician, as 


394 LECTURE XIII. 


a departure from the rules of rhetorical writing. It is entirely 
compatible with the evident fact of the several authors having 
written in such various idioms and styles as their respective 
talents, habits, associations, or circumstances rendered most 
easy and natural: while, at the same time, it places all the 
sacred writers; however various their modes and minds, on 
the same footing of divine authority ; and gives to all portions 
of the Bible an equal claim to be received as the oracles of 


God. 'Thus over the just interpretation of each single verse, 


is written, infallibility. 

In examining into the degree of authority to be attached 
to the scriptures, we are favoured with a very direct appeal. 
We may go to the scriptures themselves. Having already 
established their credibility; we have a full warrant to de- 
pend on them for a true statement of the words of the Saviour 
and his apostles. Having established also the fundamental 
doctrine that the Saviour and his apostles were divinely sent 
and attested, we have a right to rely implicitly on their 
words, as truth divinely sealed and certified. Our way, 
therefore, is plain. We must search the scriptures for any 
words of the Lord Jesus and of his apostles concerning the 
subject before us. We have but one question to answer: 


Does the New Testament bear witness that the several books 


composing the Bible were treated or represented by the 
Saviour or his apostles as divinely inspired? This deter- 
mined in the affirmative, the inspiration of the scriptures is 
decided, until the whole argument of the preceding lectures 
shall be proved inconclusive. 

I. Let us divide the question, and begin our mre with 
the Old Testament scriptures. is 

Ist. It is undeniable that the Saviour and his apostles re- 
garded the Old T’estament with at least as much reverence, 
as did the Jews in their day. They reproved the latter for 
many errors of doctrine and of practice; for mutilating the 
scriptures by false interpretations; and for making thea of 


none effect through their traditions ; but nowhere do we read — 


LECTURE XIII. 395 


the least insinuation of their having censured the Jews for 
paying too much respect to the scriptures, or for allowing 
them too much authority. On the contrary, they evidently 
joined in, most earnestly, with the Jewish mind on this sub- 
ject; and, instead of attempting to unsettle, aimed directly at 
increasing its habit of implicit submission to the Old 'Testa- 
ment writings. But had the Jews been erroneous in that 
high degree of reverence with which they regarded those 
sacred books ; such countenance and example on the part of 
our Lord and his ambassadors could not have been showed, 
consistently with the perfect truth and openness which marked 
all their dealings. 

Now, be it observed, that the Jews, in the time of Christ, 
considered the writings of the Old Testament as divinely 
inspired ; not merely in respect to their doctrines, but their 
whole matter and substance. Josephus says, that in his time 
they were universally believed to have been written by men 
“as they learned them of God himself by inspiration,” and 
were justly believed to be “prvrne.” He draws a wide distine- 
tion between the histories of the Jewish people which were 
written since the time of Artaxerxes, and those contained in the 
Bible, and gives, as a reason why the former had not been 
received as having so much authority as the latter, that since 
Artaxerxes there had not been a succession of inspired men. 
* How firmly we have given credit,” he says, “ to these books of 
ourown nation, is evident from what we do; for during so many 
ages as have already passed, no one hath been so bold as either 
to add any thing to them, to take any thing from them, or to 
make any change in them; but it is become natural to all Jews, 
immediately and from their very birth, to esteem those books to 
contain divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and if occa- 
sion be, willingly to die for them.”* Hence we see that 
Jesus and his apostles, in coinciding with, and in employing 
and promoting the current sentiment of the Jewish people in 
their days, must be considered as having, really and in the 


——— 


_ * Cont, Apion, b. i. $8 7, 8. 


396 LECTURE XIII. 


broadest sense, espoused and confirmed the doctrine of the 
divine inspiration of the Old Testament scriptures. 

2d. But, unanswerable as is the above attestation, we have 
a direct assertion on the part of St. Paul of still greater im- 
portance. Having reminded Timothy, that from a child he 
had known “the holy scriptures,” which were able to make 
him wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, he 
makes this positive and conclusive declaration: “ All scrip- 
ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
nished unto all good works.”* 

Here, then, is the plain testimony of one, whose know- 
ledge and veracity we have ascertained, that whatever in his 
time was included under the name of “scripture,” or “holy 
scriptures,” was of divine inspiration. We have only to ask, 
therefore, to what books Paul applied that name. It was a 
naine of common use in his day. Josephus and Philo fre- 
quently speak of “the divine scriptures,” and “the holy 
scriptures.” It is manifest, therefore, that Paul meant to be 
understood as asserting the divine inspiration of that collec- 
tion of sacred books to which the Jews notoriously applied 
such names; in other words, the books of the Old 'Testa- 
ment. He regarded them all as scripture. He declared them 
all inspired. | 

Now, that under the same title we have the same collec- 
tion of writings is certain ; not only from the important fact 
that on this head there is a perfect agreement between our 
bibles and those of the whole Jewish nation at the present 
day; but also from the testimony of Josephus, who, although 
he has not mentioned the names of the several books consi- 
dered as scripture in his time, has given us their number, and 
so described them that their identity with ours cannot be 
mistaken. He takes care to speak of them “as of divine 
authority.”t In addition to this, we have the testimony of 


* 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16, 17. t Cont. Apion, b, i. § 8, 


a ee 


LECTURE XIII. 397 


the New Testament as to the canon of the Old. For besides 
the books of Moses, which the former expressly mentions as 
of divine authority, it also specifies almost all the other books 
of our Old Testament as belonging, in the time of Christ, to 
the sacred canon of the Jews. Some are omitted, only 
because the mentioning of any is incidental. Nothing but 
a.formal enumeration can be expected t6 be complete. ‘That 
none are excepted against, is proof that all were received by 
the Lord and his apostles, 

Hence, we are fully warranted to believe that “ all scrip- 
ture,” in the mouth of St. Paul, meant all the books of the 
Old Testament which Jews and Christians at present unite 
in receiving as divine oracles ; consequently, we have apos- 
tolic authority in proof that they were all “ given by inspira- 
tion of God.” 

Much additional evidence to the same point might be 
added ; but with any who acknowledge the argument of the 
previous lectures, and thence believe that whatever St. Paul 
asserted, as a doctrine of christianity, is true, the above sim- 
ple reasoning will be amply sufficient for the divine inspira- 
tion of the Old Testament. 

II. Let us proceed to the second division of our subject, 
and carry our inquiry to the books of the New ‘Testament. 

Ist. The inspiration of the New Testament may be natu 
rally and reasonably inferred from that of the Old. In this, 
we argue by analogy. No reason can be given why those 
holy men of old, who composed the books of the other 'Tes- 
tament, should have written, not “by the will of man,” but 
“as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” that does not apply 
with much greater force to the writers of the later volume. 
The economy of the Old Testament was to cease at the 
advent of Christ; that of the New will endure to the end of 
the world. 'The former was intended only for a single nation, 
and adapted but to a country of narrow boundaries. The 
latter was framed to-include all nations, and is intended of 


God to be coextensive with the globe. The law had only 
30" 


398 TECTURE XIII. 


“a shadow of good things to come;” the gospel has “the 
very image of the things ;” the first was a system of types, 
“which stood only in meats, and drinks, and divers washings, 
and carnal ordinances imposed, until the time of reforma- 
tion ;” the second (the time of reformation being come) is a 
system of direct revelation ; the veil has been rent in twain, 
so that it may be sail, in comparison with the previous dis- 
pensation, that we “no longer see through a glass, darkly, but 
face to face.” One grand distinction of the economy of the 
gospel is, that it is the dispensation of the Spirit. That pecu- 
har feature in which its covenant is “a better covenant, estab- 
lished upon better promises’—“a new covenant”—is found 
in this, that it is a spiritual covenant ; its promises, its privi- 
leges, its duties, its parties, are all spiritual. Its character, in 
this respect, is seen in that stipulation of its Divine Author: 
“T will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their 
hearts.” So much, therefore, does this “ ministration of righ 
teousness exceed in glory” all that preceded it, that although 
there had never risen, under the Old Testament system, a 
greater than John the Baptist; yet “he that is least in the 


kingdom of God (i. e. under the New Testament system,) is 


greater than he.” 

Now, is it supposable that, under a dispensation so limited 
in extent and duration as that of the law ; so carnal in its 
ordinances ; so obscure in its revelations ; serving only “unto 
the example and shadow of heavenly things ;” the sacred 
books should have been given by inspiration of God; and 
yet, that under the far better covenant of the gospel, designed 
for all mankind, and to stand while the world endures are} 
dispensation so eminently distinguished for the outpouring 
of the Spirit; for the spiritual gifts of its earliest ministers, 
and the spiritual duties and blessings of all its members; we 
Should be left to a standard of truth and duty, dictated only by 
the wisdom, composed only under the superintending care, of 
‘fallible men? Surely the inspiration of the New Testament 
is naturally and reasonably inferred from that of the Old. 


i ee 


LECTURE XIII. 399 


2d. The same conclusion necessarily arises from the 
evident inspiration of the apostles in their preaching and 
other official actions. 

It was expressly promised by the Lord, that when they 
should stand before enemies, in defence of the gospel, they 
should speak by inspiration of God. In such circumstances, 
their direction was: “Take no thought how or what ye 
shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of 
your Father which speaketh in you.” “The Holy Ghost 
shall teach you in that same hour, what ye ought to say.” 
“I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your 
adversaries shall not be able to gainsay, nor resist.”* We 
have no reason to suppose that these promises of inspiration 
were confined to the special circumstances referred to in the 
passages above quoted. 'The apostles were to be placed in 
many others for which they would be quite as needful. 
Certain circumstances were particularly spoken of by the 
Lord; because in them the faith of his apostles would be 
particularly tried. 

But inspiration was promised by the Saviour, in terms of 
the most comprehensive kind. A little before his crucifixion, 
when the hearts of his disciples (Judas having left them) 
were greatly troubled at the assurance that he was soon to 
be taken from them; he promised to send them a Comforter 
—the Holy Spirit—who should abide with them for ever. 
This blessed Person, he called repeatedly “the Spirit of 
truth.” He was distinctly promised to the apostles, as a 
substitute, in all respects, for the presence, the guidance, the 
instructions of their Lord himself. The great consolation 
of such a substitute consisted in his being to the apostles, 
invisibly, just what Jesus had been to them, visibly ; so that 
they might consider themselves to be divinely directed and 
instructed under his influence, in a manner quite as direct 
and infallible, as if they had still the Master’s voice to hear, 
and his footsteps to follow. They were assured that “the 


* Mat. x. 19,20. Luke xii. 12; and xxi. 15. 


400 | LECTURE XIII. 


Spirit of truth” would teach them whatever knowledge their 


duties might require. “He shall teach you all things.” 
“ He will lead you into all truth.” Had they forgotten any 
portion of their Lord’s instructions? “ The Spirit of truth,” 
said he, “shall bring all things to your remembrance what- 
soever I have said unto you.” _“ He shall take of mine, and 


shall show tt unto you.” Even the knowledge of the future — 


was promised to the apostles, by the inspiration of the Holy 
Ghost. “He will show you things to come.” They were 
directed to tarry in Jerusalem after his death, until they 
Should, receive “power from on high.” Now all these 
promises are positive proofs that the apostles were inspired 
in their ministry, as soon as their fulfilment took place. 
‘Thus, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, and the 


Spirit descended upon them, “they were all filled with the _ 


Holy Ghost,” and “ began to speak as the Spirit gave them 
utterance.” By this inspiration, they were enabled to preach, 
in all languages, the wonderful works of God. 'The sermon 


of Peter, on that day, was spoken under this influence. By — 


the same help, he discerned the spirit of Ananias and 


Sapphira. Their lie was unto the Holy Ghost, in as much | 
as, it was unto one whom the Holy Ghost inspired. Directed — 
by the same Spirit, Peter journeyed from Joppa to the house 

of Cornelius, and first opened the door of faith to the Gen- 
tiles. Paul, by inspiration, went forth on his mission from 


Antioch to the lesser Asia ; being “full of the Holy Ghost,” 
he searched the conscience of Elymas, the sorcerer, and 
punished his wickedness with blindness. When the apostles, 
and elders, and brethren were assembled in council about the 
question sent up from Antioch for their decision; they 


consulted and determined as they were guided by inspiration _ 


of God. “It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost,’ was the 


solemn sanction annexed to their sentence. They claimed 


to be always received, as inspired. Their speech and their 


preaching, they asserted, were “in demonstration of the 
Spirit ;” « 


not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, 


-— i 
ee a 


LECTURE XIII. AOL 


but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” It is expressly declared 
by St. Peter, that his brethren and himself “preached the 
gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” All 
these statements, and many others which might be adduced, 
abundantly confirm the position, that the apostles, in their 
preaching and other official actions, were in the highest sense 
imspired. 

Hence it would seem to be very naturally and reasonably 
inferred, that when they wrote for the permanent guidance 
of the churches, they were inspired also. Can it be supposed. 
that St. Paul, in preaching to the Ephesians or Corinthians, 
spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost; and yet was 
entirely bereft of that divine aid, when he sat down to the 
much more important work of composing epistles to those 
churches? When it is considered how entirely all the oral 
communications of the apostles ceased to be remembered, in 
a short time after they were uttered, except as they were 
recorded in the scriptures; and how their written communi- 
cations to the churches have remained unmutilated, these 
eighteen hundred years ; and are now circulated in upwards 
of one hundred and seventy languages ; and will continue 
to be the guide and treasure of the church to the end of the 
world ; can it be believed that in these the apostles were left 
to their own fallible wisdom, though guided in the others by 
the inspiration of God? Such an opinion would be absurd 
in the extreme. 

It seems to be a necessary conclusion, from the above 
premises, that the authors of the New Testament were 
divinely inspired, as well when writing for all people and 
all ages, as when speaking to the congregation ofa single 
synagogue. 

3d. If the apostles did not intend to impress the church 
with a belief that they wrote by divine inspiration ; they 
adopted the very means that were most likely to lead its 
members into a most important heresy. St. Paul, in an 


epistle to Timothy, which he knew would be universally cir- 
34* 


402 | LECTURE XIII. 


culated, published the broad assertion: “ All schipied 4s 
given by inspiration of God.” Now it is worthy of note, 
that the epistle, containing this declaration, is generally ‘sup 
posed to have been written after all the other works of St. 
Paul, and but a short time before his martyrdom at Rome. 
At any rate, it was one of his latest works. The Gospel of 
St. Matthew had been written and circulated at least twenty 
years. Those by St. Mark and St. Luke were already in 
the possession of the churches. The same is true of the 
Acts of the Apostles. We know of no part of the whole 
New Testament that was written subsequently to the uttering 
of the above declaration, except the gospel, epistles, and 
Revelation by St. John. 

In connexion with this, be it observed, that when the 


primitive christians received an epistle or gospel from one of — 


the apostles or evangelists, they regarded it as a portion of 
holy scripture. By this familiar name, it was universally 
known, and with this high honour, it was always treated. 
Precisely as the writers of the New Testament speak of the 
books of the Old 'Testament, calling them the scriptures, do 
the christian writers, who were contemporaneous with the 
apostles, continually quote their books. 'This cannot be 
questioned. Then, consider the circumstances of the church- 
es. ‘They have in possession, and in daily use, a number of 
writings which have been sent them by the apostles and 
evangelists, the greater part of them by St. Paul himself. It 
is well known to the latter, that those writings are universally 
revered and read as holy scriptures. In these circumstances, 


he declares that “ all scripture is given by inspiration of God.” d 


How are they to understand him? Shall they say: He 
speaks in that passage only of the Jewish scriptures? His 
primary reference was unquestionably to them. But in what 


sense can his assertion be true of all scripture, if so large a 
part as that comprising the New Testament, and which was 


universally denominated scripture, came only “by the will 


ee Ce eek, Cee 


LECTURE XIII. 7 403 


ofman?” But this is not all that the apostles did to promote 
the belief of the inspiration of their writings. 

The christian churches were accustomed to appeal to the 
Old Testament as an inspired volume. A large number of 
their members had been educated in the Jewish faith, and by 
habit, as well as reflection, always associated the idea of 
divine inspiration with that of a book of scripture. . Conse- 
quently, when the writings of the New Testament were 
received ; when they came to occupy, in regard to the chris- 
tian church, a corresponding place to that of the Old Testa- 
ment books in regard to the Jewish church ; when they were 
honoured by universal consent, with the same title of “holy 
scriptures” as was applied to the sacred books of the former 
dispensation ; it was extremely natural that the churches 
should treat them precisely as they treated the older books, 
and believe them also to have been written by inspiration of 
God. That they did thus regard them is indisputable. 
Clement, bishop of Rome, a contemporary of the apostles, 
says: “Look into the holy scriptures, which are the true 
words of the holy Ghost. T'ake the epistle of the blessed 
Paul, the apostle, into your hands; verily he did by the 
Spirit admonish you.” The primitive christians rejected 
from the canon of scripture certain books, because, though 
true and edifying, they were not inspired by the Holy Ghost. 
They habitually spoke of the New Testament as “'The 
Word of God,” “'The Voice of God,” “'The Ahacre of the 
Holy Ghost.” 

_ Now, in such circumstances, how would the apostles, as. 
men of common honesty and candour, have acted in case 
they did not consider their writings to be inspired? Know- 
ing the natural tendency and the actual state of public opin- 
ion among the churches, could they have been even silent 
on this subject? Must they not have warned their disciples 
against a disposition so dangerous, and a heresy so conspicu- 
ous? Would not the most ordinary measure of humility 
and faithfulness have impelled them to draw the line of dis- 


<= 
G 


sasha 


404 LECTURE XIII. 


Fee yr 


tinction, too plainly to be mistaken, between what they had 
written by their own wisdom, and what holy men of old had 
written “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost?” What 
course do they pursue? Not only do they allow the natural 
disposition of those accustomed to attach inspiration to the 
scripture to have its way ; not only do they say nothing hav- 
ing the least tendency to correct the universal impression of 
the churches on so vital a point; but they adopt the very — 
course which was calculated directly to confirm all their — 
prepossessions. ‘They introduce their writings in a manner — 
of authority precisely similar to that of the inspired men of — 
older times. Witness the beginning of the Epistle to the — 
Galatians: “ Paul an apostle (not of men, neither by man, 
but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him 
from the dead) unto the churches of Galatia,’ &c. Peter, 
speaking of the epistles of Paul, as familiarly known among 
christians, expressly numbers them among “ the scriptures,” 
and puts them upon a level with “the other scriptures,” | 
which Jews and Christians alike considered to have been : 
written by inspiration. Paul speaks of the writings of the 
“apostles and prophets” as constituting together that good 
foundation on which christians were built, “Jesus Christ 
himself being the chief corner stone.”t And after Peter has 
particularly included the epistles of St. Paul among the ‘ 
scriptures, the latter publishes his declaration that “all serip- 
ture is given by inspiration of God.” | a9 

If those holy men did not intend to promote the belief of 
the inspiration of their writings; if they were desirous of 
teaching the churches to make a wide distinction between _ 
their works, as merely human and fallible, and those: of — 1 
Moses and the prophets, as divine and infallible ; how singu- 
larly did they mistake the way! how exactly did they 
inculeate what they wished to contradict, and build up what 
they were bound to destroy ! 

{n what manner the primitive churches understood their 


a a EG EE A653 
* 2 Peter, iii. 16. + Ephesians, ii. 20. 


i eum 


rw _ LECTURE XIII. Fito — 405 


instructions, is manifest; and on stheluip position that the 
apostles taught that their wotines were not inspired, it forms 
a singular proof of the great obscurity with which they must 
have expressed themselves. Justin Martyr, a contemporary 
with St. John, says that “the gospels were written by men 


‘full of the Holy Ghost.” Trenzeus, a few years later, declares 
that “the scriptures were dictated by the Spirit of God, and 


that, therefore, it is wickedness to contradict them, and sacri- 
lege to alter them.” “The gospel,” he says, “was first 
preached, and afterwards, by the will of God, committed to 
writing. that it might be, for time to come, the foundation 
and pillar of our faith.” 

Enough, it, is believed, has now been exhibited to satisfy _ 
any reasonable mind that it was the intention of the writers 
of the New Testament, and of their blessed Master, that 
the church should regard their works as having been 
dictated and rendered infallible by divine inspiration. To 


those who acknowledge that Christ and his apostles were 


commissioned and taught of God, this is perfect evidence of 
the great doctrine at which we have been arriving. For those 
who, after all that has been said in our preceding lectures, 
shall still refuse to acknowledge the Lord Jesus and his 


apostles as divinely commissioned and endowed, we have no 


more argument. Much additional reasoning might be offered ; 
but such is the conclusiveness of what has been adduced, tha 
it may be said without presumption, if they believe not upon 
such evidence, “neither would they believe though one rose 
from the dead.”* 

We may now conclude a course of lectures, which has 
already extended far beyond the anticipations of the author. 
Having arrived at the divine authority of christianity, and 
the divine inspiration of the scriptures, we have not only a 
religion revealed from God, but an infallible expression of 


* For a much more extended and able view of the inspiration of the New 
Testament, see Dick on the Inspiration of the Scriptures; and Lectures on 
the same by Leonard Woods, D. D., Andover, 


406 ‘LECTURE XIII. 


its doctrines and duties. We have the guide, as well as 
the way, to everlasting life—both equally certain, equally 
divine. a . 

Let us be thankful for such unspeakable gifts. Next to the 
mercy of a Saviour—able and ready “to save to the utter- 
‘most all that come unto God by Him”—is the book of the 
inspiration of God, which, as a lamp to our feet, and a light 
to our path, conducts to such a Friend, and teaches us, with- 
out mistake, all that we must do to be saved. 

Let us consider our obligation to study this blessed book, 


with most serious attention and care. What can be more - 


ungrateful, more disobedient, more sinful, in the sight of God, 
than the total neglect, or the careless reading of a volume 


which His own Spirit indited for our express guidance and 


consolation? “Search the scriptures !” is the injunction, as 
well of our reason, as of the Lord Jesus., “Let the word of 
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,” is a command as de- 
lightful in its obedience, as it is authoritative in its declaration. 

Let us yield implicit submission to the decisions of the 
scriptures. In them we read the oracles of God—the mind 
of the Spirit—infallible wisdom. As inspired pages, their 
authority is absolute. It is plain duty, therefore, to bring 
every question of truth or practice to their judgment; and to 
bow, without a question, or a murmur, or the least reserve 
of mind or heart, to whatever they require. To: proceed on 
any other principle; to bring any thoughts of ours into the 
least competition with the decision of the scriptures ; to sub- 
mit to one portion of the Bible, more than to another; to 


withhold assent to any of its doctrines, till we can fully per- 


ceive their necessity, or reasonableness, or their consistency 
with certain notions of human wisdom, is a practical denial 
of the divine authority of the whole volume, and deserves no, 
other name than that of unbelief. | 

Let us search the scriptures daily ; for they were made to 
be daily “ profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and in- 


: 


LECTURE XI, 407 
: gLiks : 

struction in righteousness.” It is only when taken as an 
intimate companion and friend, that the Bible throws off its 
reserve, and appears in all its excellence. 'Then it speaks to 
the heart, and begins to develope treasures of consolation as — 
numerous as the wants of sinners, as endless as the grace of 
their Saviour. We can well perceive the hand of God 
in the general construction of christianity, while standing 
without, and looking only upon its walls and bulwarks ; but, 
like the temple of Jerusalem, we must enter within the holy 
place to “behold the fair beauty of the sanctuary ;” the fine 
gold of its workmanship; and the glory of Him “who 
dwelleth between the cherubim.” “The secret of the Lord 
is with them that fear him; and he will show them his 
covenant.” 

Let us search the scriptures with prayer ; “ praying always 
with all prayer and.supplication in the Spirit,” that we may 
be “filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and 
spiritual understanding.” 'The key of the ark, in which are 
laid up the tables of testimony, is prayer. By this alone can 
we get into “the secret place of the Most High,” and be 
taught of God. He who, without prayer, should seek to 
enter within the veil, and obtain a view of the divine glory 
as it shines within the scriptures, would act no less pre- 
sumptuously, than Aaron, the high priest, had he attempted, 
without his brazen censer and his incense, to pass the veil of 
the holy of holies, and stand before the mercy-seat. “My 
son,” saith the scripture, “if thou criest after knowledge, and 
liftest up thy voice for understanding ; if thou seekest her as 
silver, and searchest for her as hid treasures ; then shalt thou 
understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of 
God.” é 


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